


Remnants of War

by Anonymous



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Gundam Wing, Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Companions (Valdemar), Crossover, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Magic, Travelogue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-06-16 00:11:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15424719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Two smart-ass heroes walk into a bar... No, that's not how it goes. One hero is from a far future where mankind has gone to outer space and promptly screwed things up. The other is from a steampunk universe where mankind has learned the secrets of an arcane science and taken their sweet time screwing things up. Both of them wind up in a pre-industrial universe where people are using magic, of all things. And somebody wants to screw it up. Not on their watch.





	1. Thanatos

**Author's Note:**

> I'm actually supposed to be working on a fic in an entirely different fandom, a semi-followup to another fic in that same fandom, but I'm in the last few chapters of that fic and it will not end. So here I am distracting myself with this bit of fluff I've played around with on and off over the last few years. I usually prefer to have a fic completed before posting, but this one I just goof off with in between doing other things and I don't know every turn of how it's going to play out like I usually do when I start a fic. I started it with a vague idea of how these two were going to wind up in this adventure and I also know why they were chosen to go to Velgarth, but I didn't really plot it out any more than that. So I'm just gonna post what I've got and update it as it comes. I'm not promising War And Peace here, but it's been a nice diversion for me and I hope it offers the same for you.

 

Duo was in the fifth hour of his test flight and still unable to shake his bad mood.  He watched the lines of data on his readout being relayed back to the flight test team and tried to be fascinated by it, but it was no dice.  His last conversation with Heero kept replaying in his mind regardless of his perfect willingness to let it recede in his memory banks.

_“I have to do this,” he’d said._

_“You have to?  You specifically?”_

_“It has to be me.”_

_“Just tell me how long you’ll be gone.”_

_“Don’t wait for me.”_

And off the bastard had gone, with his duffel over his shoulder and no look back.

“Live with a guy for a year and you think you’ve got something.”

“What was that?”  The FTE’s voice sounded nearly robotic from packet loss.

“Nothing.  Belay my last, it’s inconsequential.”

“Roger that.”

And that was when explosive decompression turned the cabin into pea soup.

 

#

 

All was white and formless.  His head should have felt ready to explode, but Duo felt fine.  Hell, he felt better than he had in years.  If only he weren’t alone again.

And then he wasn’t.

“I know you.”

The man was beautiful beyond description, with a smile like the soft glow of sunset.  “I would be most upset with you if you didn’t.”

“How do I know you?”

“Think about it Duo.  You have called to me, many times, professed a belief in me.  You have even been me.”

_Shinigami_.

“I knew you would remember!”  He sounded purely delighted about it.

“I’m dead?”

“You could be.  Unless…”

“Unless what?”

Shinigami’s exquisite face became serious, like a cemetery angel.  “There is nothing I would like more than to bring you home right this minute Duo.  You have more than earned your rest.  But there is a need.”

Duo felt stillness in his soul.  “It has to be me?”

“You are best suited.”

“Then let it be me.”  He was shocked at how little time he’d needed to consider it. 

Shinigami smiled and did not look surprised.  “Thank you, Duo.”

And dark followed light.

 

#

 

_Duo Maxwell, welcome to your acid trip_.  He’d woken briefly to the disconcerting sight of a stag snorting fitfully over his prone body and fallen unconscious again in a daze.  Which was probably a mercy because he’d seen all those videos of hunters getting their asses handed to them by deer.  The second time he woke it was to a lingering headache and a horse whuffling him in the face.

_:I am not a horse:_ the horse had promptly told him, and granted she certainly didn’t sound like any horse Duo had ever seen before, but she sure did look like one.  A tall (were horses tall?), white, blue-eyed horse.  She had sighed in exasperation, a reaction familiar to Duo although never before from an equine creature, and then she’d said, : _I’ll settle for equine creature for the time being_.  _Get on my back, Chosen.:_

“Okay.”  She was thoughtfully wearing a saddle, so he climbed aboard.  “What was I chosen for again?’  The last time he’d been chosen for something it had turned out to be piloting a death machine into a war he nearly hadn’t survived.

_:You are Chosen to become a Herald, of course.:_

“What’s a herald?”

_:You really are from far away, aren’t you Chosen?:_

“Where am I now?  This doesn’t look like any part of the Sanc kingdom I’ve been to before.”

_:Sanc kingdom?  You are in the_ _kingdom_ _of_ _Valdemar_ _,_ _Chosen_ _.  I have never before heard of the Sanc kingdom.  Is it past the Pelagirs?:_

And that was when Duo began to realize that maybe he didn’t just have a bad concussion.  Maybe that conversation with Shinigami had been entirely real.  The equine creature (because she surely was not a horse, Duo was with the program on that point now) carried him through countryside that did not look like it had seen the touch of an industrialized hand, ever.  Which was impossible.  There was not a nation on Earth that hadn’t been plowed under and reseeded at some point in its history.  Somehow Duo got the sense that the equine creature was growing discomfited by his thoughts.  Which was not impossible, he knew that from being friends with Quatre.  She must be some sort of New Type.  Some sort of New Type equine creature.  In a country that did not look like any part of Earth with which Duo was familiar, and he was very well traveled.

“How did you find me again?”  Duo heard the shrillness in his voice and he did not care.  “The plane was nowhere in sight when I woke up, and it can’t have crashed that far away because I don’t remember ejecting.  How did you find me?  Where did you find me?”

_:I sensed you and I came for you.  This is how it has ever been.  What is this plane you speak of? Do you mean the astral plane?  When I found you, there was only you.  No strange machine nearby.:_

“You are reading my thoughts.”

_:Only your surface thoughts.  We have not bonded fully yet.  I gleaned that you are unfamiliar with Valdemar and might not understand what being Chosen means, so I decided to wait until you do before completing the bond.:_

“Explain it to me.”  She may not sound like Doctor G, and she sure as hell didn’t look like Doctor G, but this was starting to feel a hell of a lot like what happened with Doctor G.

_:I will show you, when we have arrived at our destination.:_

“You’re asking me to willingly go along with you when you won’t tell me what’s going on.”  He wondered how far he could get before she caught him by the braid.  That is, if she didn’t decide to trample him instead.  He was not a terribly experienced rider and had not personally gone up against any cavalry units, but he did know that horses made for dangerous adversaries if you were stuck on foot with no weapons.

_:_ _Chosen_ _, banish those thoughts from your mind.:_   She sounded genuinely affronted.  _:As if I could ever hurt you!  We are in the middle of nowhere.  I am taking you to the nearest Waystation.  It is two hours until sunset and we shall require shelter.:_

Shelter.  Attention to basic needs.  That was a prerogative Duo understood well.

“Can I stop calling you ‘equine creature?’  You must have a name.”

She laughed and now Duo could definitely tell that she was speaking in his mind.  There was no trick of the mind that could disguise the fact that her laughter did not ring back from the surrounding hills.

_:My name is Ilyn.  I am honored to meet you, Chosen.:_

He laughed back in spite of himself.  “You already know my name, don’t you?”

_:You are called Duo Maxwell.  There is more to it than that, but I have not pursued it.  I won’t until you accept_ _me._ _:_

“Fair enough.”

And that had been the extent of their conversation for the past hour.  Duo had spent the time taking in the countryside around him.  They were in the foothills of a mountain range that was visible farther in the distance.  The grass was a deep, dark green with blue flower heads.  Yellow and purple wildflowers batted lazily in the breeze.  Overhead, a hawk cried out in search of prey.

And suddenly, Ilyn stopped.

“What’s wrong?”

_:We will not be alone at the Waystation.:_

“Trouble?”  Duo didn’t have a solitary clue about how he’d handle trouble in this place, but he had a talent for winging it.

_:Not exactly.  It is another Companion with his Chosen.:_

“Oh.  That’s not bad though, is it?”  Another human to talk to would not be bad at all.  That’s assuming the Chosen was human.  Duo had assumed they would be human, and had not thought to ask what the other locals were like besides Ilyn.  That might have been a mistake.

_:The Chosen is new, like you are.  He is taking it with considerable less grace than you did.  His emotional state is…  raw.:_

“What exactly have you gotten me into Ilyn?”  Duo’s initial bad feeling was returning full force.

_:Nothing that I gather you haven’t faced before.:_

War, then?  Fan-freaking-tastic.

“Can I unenlist?”

_:We are not at war.:_

The mind reading thing was going to become a problem if she ever happened upon one of his fantasies concerning one Heero Yuy.  Things he’d thought of doing if he could convince the other pilot to let down his guard more than he had during their… Duo didn’t even know what to call it now.  Of course, then it became impossible not to flash on a particularly lurid fantasy.

_:I have seen humans doing things far more lewd than what you are thinking about.  Have no shame.  In any case, Heralds are permitted a great deal of laxity in their liaisons.:_

“Is that an old enough to die, old enough to drink kind of thing?”

_:As I understand it from your surface thoughts, yes.:_

“What kind of activity would put me in that situation if not war?”

_:We will be riding circuit throughout the country of Valdemar.  We will encounter a great many dangers on our travels, but also a great many good people who need our help.  And I will be with you every step of the way.:_

Riding circuit?  “Is that like walking a beat?”

_:You will not be a constable.:_

Okay.  Not a cop.  “National Guard?”

Duo swore he could feel Ilyn turning the concept over in her mind.  _:That feels the most similar.:_

Swell.  A Preventer by any other name…

“How about an answer to my earlier question, please.”

_:You may refuse me.  However, I must warn you that because we have already accomplished the initial bonding, it will not be pleasant.  More so for me than for you, but neither of us will enjoy separating.:_

Better and better.  “Thanks for being honest.”

_I will endeavor to always be honest with you_.

“Because you have to be?”

_:No.  Because you value it.:_

“Picked up on that, did you?”

_:Impossible not to.  It is a motto you hold dear to your heart_. _And therefore, I shall hold dear to mine.:_

They continued the journey in silence for a while.  Until the silence was broken by shouting from a human voice, echoing off the hills like an obscene yodeler.

“You mean to tell me I’m soul bound to a fucking horse in a fucking country I’ve never heard of before?  This is fucking unbelievable!”

They couldn’t even see the Waystation yet, so the guy must have a pretty impressive set of lungs.

“Less grace?  Bit of an understatement, don’t you think?”

_:I was trying to spare your sensibilities.:_

Duo laughed out loud.  “Babe my sensibilities were gone with the teat!”

_:Cheeky!:_

Duo got a sudden mental image of a middle-aged woman in white leathers smirking.

“Is that you?”

_:Duo I would appreciate it if you would not share that information with anyone.  It’s important that most Heralds not realize who we really are.:_

“You’re making with the cryptic again.”

_:It will all make sense when we complete the bond.:_

“That feels more than a little like emotional blackmail.”

_:I know and I’m sorry.  I wish I could offer a better explanation, but your unusual background combined with the strength of your Gift will make it difficult for me to explain without showing you everything.  And I can’t show you everything without a full bond.:_

They rode in silence again that was broken only by occasional swearing from the mysterious Chosen up ahead.  As dusk began to paint the clouds golden, they came upon the Waystation.  It was a tiny log cabin with smoke puffing out of the chimney.  As they neared the cabin, another white horse cantered around the side of it to face them.

_:He’s not a horse.:_

“What exactly are you guys if you’re not horses?”

_:We are Companions.:_

“That sounds kinda naughty.”

_:That is because you have a naughty mind.:_

“Guilty.”

_:Mageric says that his Chosen has started a fire and put water on to boil.  He advises we exercise caution when approaching him.  He is sickly, but not incapacitated.:_

Duo could think of many things that this could mean.  For example, he had on one memorable occasion encountered a Wufei Chang who was sickly but not incapacitated.  His scalp still hurt at the memory.  Who would have thought a guy could get so offended by someone offering to carry him?

_:I believe you may have the right of it.:_

“Any particular reason Mageric chose to share this with you but not with me?”

_:Companions only ever speak to their Chosen.:_

“Oh.”  Interesting.  “You can’t, or you won’t?”

_:I won’t.  Mageric will relay messages through me or his Chosen, and I will not be speaking directly to his_ _Chosen_ _either.:_

“How come?”

_:It is the privilege of the_ _Chosen_ _to be the only ones to hear their own Companions.:_

That was a non-answer if Duo had ever heard one.  “I thought you said you were going to come clean with me?”

_:I will be far more forthright with you than possibly any Companion in the history of Valdemar.:_   She sounded exasperated.  : _I do not believe I will be able to hide much from you in any case, once we have fully bonded.  Your Gift is formidable.:_

“A friend of mine has a gift.”  Duo thought of Quatre again.  A very good friend, who would have been great to have at his back on this misadventure.  “Is it like that?”  He had little doubt now that Ilyn was fully capable of catching his drift, if she was monitoring him in the way that he thought she was.

_:Your friend is an Empath.  A strong one, I gather.  That Gift at that strength is rare among Heralds, and prized.  The Queen’s Own is Gifted in the way of your friend.  Yes, it is sort of like that, and sort of not.  You, like many Heralds, have but a spare touch of Empathy.  No, the Gift I am referring to is different.  You will see.:_

“After we finish bonding.”

_:Yes.:_

That was food for thought, and best put off until after dealing with Mr. Shouty in the cabin.  They had reached the clearing and Duo could see a cord of firewood stacked under the eave next to the door.  Duo eased himself out of the saddle, feeling a little sore.  He’d clocked plenty of hours riding motorcycles, but riding Ilyn somehow worked a different set of muscles.

_:That is a peculiar way to travel.:_

Duo stomped down on the urge to say, “Said the talking horse.”  She was clearly not a horse and he was beginning to get the impression she was offended at the comparison.

_:Thank you for your forbearance_. _:_

“You’re welcome.”

Right, then.  Once more into the breach, dear friends.  Last time Duo had felt this odd about his actions, he’d been breaking into a hospital to rescue the Perfect Soldier from a situation Duo had put him in to begin with.  Maybe it would be better to sound out the situation before just waltzing in there.

“Hello, the cabin!”

“Fuck you!”

Alright then.  Situation: All Fucked Up.  But this wouldn’t be the first time Duo had dealt with hostile comrades.  It was just a matter of being charming and then being quick with the ducking if charming didn’t work.  Bracing himself for the possibility of projectiles, Duo opened the door.

 


	2. Alethiology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duo meets Edward, then he meets the floor but it wasn't Ed's fault.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You don't know how hard it was to resist the siren call of Mr. Ed jokes.

 

It had all started with a bargain.  And it was all Ed’s fault, of course.  He should have known better than to bargain with the Truth.  But he’d thought he had something that would end it all, restore his brother’s body and let him live out the rest of his days in relative peace.  Just give up his Gate.  It had seemed so simple.

But that hadn’t been how it had gone down at all.

“I wish you had brought me this before there was a greater need,” the Truth had said, and the bastard really had sounded regretful.  It was weird to see that thing not grinning.  Weird and unsettling.

“What are you talking about, I give you my Gate, Al gets his body back, how is that not Equivalent Exchange?”  Greater need?  What need could be greater than Al’s life?

“I will restore your brother, and you as well, as an act of good faith,” the Truth had said, “I will even give you back that atrocious coat you so love.  But I will not accept your Gate as the payment.”

“Then what do you want?”  Ed felt desperate.  Al’s armor was scrap, the blood seal broken, and his true body reunited with his soul, but in mortal danger now that Ed’s body was no longer feeding it.  “I will give you anything.”

“Anything?”  And now the Truth was grinning.

“Didn’t you hear me?  I said anything!”

“Done!”

And that was how Ed had wound up in a strange country with a talking horse telling him they were soul bound.

He supposed he wasn’t being entirely fair to the horse-Companion-whatever-the-fuck.  Mageric had chased off the stag that had been thinking about munching on Ed’s clothes, and then pulled his soggy ass out of a creek.  After gazing into Ed’s eyes as if weighing his soul, he had surprised the shit out of him by telling him he had a remarkably hard head and offered to carry him to a Waystation.  Ed had insisted on following him to the Waystation on foot, and Mageric had been gracious about it.  Then he’d patiently stood by while Ed insisted on starting his own fire and boiling his own water and not accepting help carrying anything, even though it was obvious to anyone with eyes that Ed should need help.  Because the Truth had made good on his promise and given Ed back his arm and leg.

His now puny arm and leg, because while they had grown in pace with him, they had not been properly exercised in all this time, and had been nourished only as well as Al’s body had been nourished, which was to say: not well at all. So here Ed sat, wondering how he was supposed to take his own advice about moving on when he only had one strong leg to do it with, and coming to the inescapable conclusion that he was going to have to let Mageric help him after all.

And that was when some jackass hailed the cabin.  Ed greeted the cheery hallo in the fashion to which his teammates back in Central had long been inured.  Apparently this guy was also immune, because the door to the cabin swung open letting in the last of the daylight.  Slowly, cautiously, a head crowned with chestnut brown hair peered around the corner of the doorway.

“Hey guy, I feel you about not wanting company right now, really I do, but the Companions say this is the only shelter for miles around and it’s getting dark, and I promise I don’t fart in my sleep or anything like that.”

Ed grabbed a cast iron pan in his good, strong left arm and threw it at the door. The figure there darted back out hollering, “Hey man, not cool!” and Ed couldn’t help but admire the fast reflexes.

_:Edward, I would suggest you allow Duo to join you in the shelter tonight. It’s going to get cold, and his body heat will help warm the space more efficiently.:_

Mageric had thus far evinced a practical sensibility bordering on the ruthless, a trait Edward had often both feared and admired in one Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, and for a moment he felt so homesick it made his vision swim.

“Why can’t you come in here and keep the place warm?”  Sure Mageric was big and the cabin was small, but he would fit. Al had been nearly as big in his armor, and Ed knew for a fact Al could have fit.

Mageric had demonstrated several methods for communicating with Ed via some sort of mental telepathy over the past several hours.  He proceeded to use that to show Edward a vision detailing the bathroom needs of Companions.

“Okay, okay I get the picture!”  He really wished he hadn’t.  “Hey!  Brown-headed obnoxious guy!  You can come in!”

Brown-headed obnoxious guy sidled into the cabin with the cast iron pan held in front of him protectively.  “My name is Duo Maxwell. I may run and hide, but I never tell a lie. That’s me in a nutshell.”

“Hmph.”  He sounded like that wing nut Ling Yao.  He sure didn’t look like him, though.  Ed didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone who looked quite like Duo Maxwell before.  Long hair was acceptable for Amestrian men, if old-fashioned.  Hell, Ed had long hair himself.  But this guy’s hair was longer than even Winry’s, braided in a thick plait that ended somewhere behind his legs. He was wearing some kind of dark blue coverall made of a clingy fabric Ed didn’t recognize, and there were no buttons on it anywhere. How the hell did he get out of that thing?

“Like greased lightning,” Duo Maxwell said cheerfully, and proceeded to do just that, stripping off the coveralls like they were made of paper, and revealing a girl’s black body stocking, of all the damn things, underneath.

“Dude, it’s a dry suit. And I am so not a girl.”                                 

Was Ed thinking out loud?  He was prone to it sometimes when he was exhausted, but he didn’t think he was.  Was he?

_:No_ ,: Mageric sighed in Ed’s head.  _:You aren’t.:_

 

#

 

Edward the unstable Chosen was somewhat unexpected.  Oh, the glower was fully expected.  And the need for ducking.  Kid had a great arm.  But as Duo was able to observe when he was finally allowed into the cabin properly, only one great arm.  The right one was withered, as if it had been in a cast for a really long time.  In the glow of the firelight, Duo could see that the legs were the same, but mirrored.  The right leg filled out his leather pants quite nicely, but the left pants leg hung loosely.  It was weird.  The rest of his body was muscular and healthy-looking.  How did only two limbs become so wasted when the rest of him was built like a brick shit-house?

Then there were those eyes, currently assessing him with unapologetic frankness.  Duo had never seen eyes that color before on a human being. Golden, like the eyes of the big cats at Trowa’s circus.  They were wondering how Duo was going to get out of his flight suit.  So Duo satisfied his curiosity.  Then the kid accused him of looking like a girl right to his face, which was irksome.

_:Chosen, he is not saying those things out loud.:_

“What?  He was clear as day!”

_:He is a very loud Projector, I’ll give him that.  But that would hardly make a bit of difference if not for your Gift.:_

“Hah!  It’s time for you to come clean, lady!”

_:And I will. While you are assisting Edward with the evening meal.:_

Bribery!  But there was food and information in the offing, so he’d take it.  “All right, where are the victuals?”

Turned out the cabin, or Waystation as Ilyn kept calling it, was kitted out a lot like a safe house, just on a smaller, meaner scale.  Duo found dried beans, groats and bundled herbs inside a bin made of sweet smelling wood.  Before long there was a pot of reconstituting beans hitched over the fire.

_:Duo you have the Gift of Mindspeech.  You have it in strength I haven’t seen since…  Well, it’s very strong.  You are an adept Receiver- :_

“Heh.”

_:Why must everything become a dirty joke with you?  You have Mindspeech, including Mindhearing and Thoughtsensing which are not as often Gifted together as people assume.  I suspect you possess some degree of Animal Mindspeech as well.  Spare me the joke, please.:_

“So what, I’m a telepath?”

Edward dropped a whole bundle of herbs in the hot pot, reached in with his game hand to retrieve it and injured it some more in the hot water.  Duo grabbed the bucket containing what was left of the cold water and forced Edward’s hand into it.

“Dude, what the hell?”

“What do you mean _me_ what the hell?  You were reading my mind!”

“I wasn’t doing it on purpose!  You just think too loud.”

“You’re loud,” Edward said, but some of the fire had gone out of his tone and his eyes became unfocused.  Was he going into shock?

_:He is talking to his Companion.:_

Oh.  Did Duo look like that when he was talking to Ilyn?

_:Your word, “telepath,” is very odd.  But the meaning is correct.:_

“So I’m a New Type?  How come Doctor G never told me?”

_:Perhaps he did not know?  Why do your people call it New?  Mind Magic is as old as humanity.:_

“He tested me six ways from Sunday!  If I’d had something he could use to his advantage, I think he would have known about it.”  This meant he couldn’t have known, so it must not have turned up on any tests.  Duo was starting to feel a little dizzy.

_:_ _Chosen_ _you need to open to_ _me._ _:_   Ilyn’s mind voice now sounded urgent.  : _I am deeply sorry for this, but I believe I might have overlooked something.:_  

“Nuh-uh, we haven’t finished talking about this Gift thing yet.”

_:He seemed so alert, I thought he was fine!:_

“What?”

Ilyn was silent, but Duo picked up on a frisson of… was that fear?  She had not been talking to him, she had been talking to Mageric, of that he was now certain.  And now he heard the ghost of the response, a susurration just outside of his hearing, that if he only concentrated a little harder-

_:Duo, open to me now!  Please, before you hurt yourself!:_

And then he was falling into a sea of blue that was somehow deeper than cobalt and brighter than cerulean.

 

#

 

One minute Duo Maxwell was washing Ed’s hand, the next he was falling sideways in a rather graceful slump, landing at Ed’s feet in a heap of hair and limbs.  Definitely reminding him of Ling.

_:He is going to be out for a while.  Ilyn would appreciate it if you would please cover him with a blanket.:_

“What just happened?”

_:His gift was forced open.  Well, that’s not precisely accurate.  It was forced wider.  Something to do with the travel from his world must have caused it to happen. He is experiencing a delayed reaction.:_

Ed shuddered.  “He got a raw deal with the Gate too, huh?”  He wondered what the guy could have done to warrant his fate, and where he was from.  He sure as hell wasn’t from anywhere Ed was familiar with.  He felt the tickling mental sensation of Mageric pondering. 

_:Chosen I think you are onto something.  I need to discuss this with Ilyn.:_

Ed had already discovered blankets inside the bed box against the Waystation’s wall.  Rough and woolen, but warm and clean, and packed with sprigs of dried lavender, like the color of Maxwell’s eyes.  Ed rolled out a blanket beside Maxwell and then rolled him onto the blanket, trying to ignore the scandalous clinginess of his outfit.  If he hadn’t just been experiencing the kindness of this stranger Ed could have almost mistaken him for a homunculus.  Tight black clothes and eyes of violet.  But Ed had never known a homunculus who could resist breaking character when faced with human frailty, and this fellow was just too friendly and helpful, and goofy besides.  And his eyes were really more of a blue violet than a purple violet.  Not that Ed had been looking that hard.  He pulled the Maxwell-laden blanket to a safer spot on the hearth and covered him with another blanket.

“Guess I’m eating alone tonight.”

And that was when it really hit him.  _I am alone_.  No Alphonse by his side.  No Winry throwing a wrench at his head or Granny making stew on the stove.  No Central Command with irritatingly handsome Colonels who were hopelessly gone for their Lieutenants but refused to admit it.  Just him, wrapped in a scratchy wool blanket in a strange place with a stranger out cold beside him.

_:You are not alone, Chosen.  Not as long as I’m around.  How is your hand?:_

It was seared an angry pink and shooting indignant signals to his brain.  Signals that said, you dumbass why did you put your bare hand in scalding water?  It was the first pain he’d felt from that hand in six years and it was a miracle.  “It’s sore,” is what he said, in wonderment.

_:Look in the saddle bag I bade you bring in with you.  There you will find an ointment that is useful for burns and other such hurts.:_

After some fumbling with different phials that were in there and discussing the bag’s contents with Mageric, Ed found a jar that contained something waxy and herbal smelling.

_:That’s it!  That recipe is worth its weight in sparklies, I tell you.  Gently rub it into your hand.  Do you have a kerchief to tie around it?:_

He didn’t.

_:Ah, well.  Good thing your cloak is so long.:_

Wasn’t it just?  Ed spread out the red traveling cloak on his lap with the black Flamel facing up.  He reminded himself that this was actually a reproduction of the original cloak and he was not defacing the one that had seen him through so many adventures.  Then he remembered that he couldn’t transmute his hand into a knife to cut it up with, and he started to laugh.  Mageric sat in the back of his mind, not judging, until the laughter began to take on a strident quality.

_:Enough,_ _Chosen_ _.  There is a field knife in the saddlebags, fetch it out and cut yourself a dressing.:_

He remembered finding it while looking for the ointment, sheathed in a tooled leather scabbard.  He drew it out and cut off a narrow swathe of red fabric and wrapped it around his hand, giggle-snorting through tears all the while.  Then he contemplated the now-uneven hem on his cloak. 

Ed had not used alchemy since arrival in this place, falling back on the survival techniques inculcated in him by Izumi Curtis instead.  He pressed his hands together and visualized the array necessary to alter the shape of the cloth.  He could feel the power thrumming, so close, but the array was not channeling it through his hands. Maybe he was having trouble feeling it because one of his hands was sort of new?  He fixed the array in his mind’s eye and pressed his hands to the cloth.  Nothing happened. 

“What’s this?  Did that rat bastard take my Gate after all?”

_:No_ _Chosen_ _.  Ilyn and I believe the All changed your relationship to it.  The runes that worked in your world will not work here.  You will have to learn new ways to channel.:_

“But who will teach me?  I don’t know anyone here.”

_:You know me.  And did I not tell you that I was taking you to Collegium when we met?:_

He might have been a little distracted with the whole ‘falling into a creek and being greeted by a talking horse’ thing during that introduction.

_:You know good and well I am not a horse.:_   Ed heard a thump from outside that sounded an awful lot like a horsey foot stomp.

“Sorry.”  The campfire beans were beginning to smell rather decent, and Ed was feeling some of the fight go out of him in anticipation of a full belly.  “What is Collegium, exactly?”  Gingerly, he spooned a small portion of the beans into a battered tin bowl.

_:It is where all young Heralds go to learn.:_

“Herald?”  Ed got an image in his mind of a baby seraph playing the harp.  “I’m a Herald?”

_:You will be after training.:_

“WHO ARE YOU CALLING A CHERUB TOO TINY TO WEAR CLOTHES?”

_:By the Gods, I did not say anything like what you are thinking of right now!:_

Then Mageric presented an image straight into Ed’s head like a mimeograph, as he had done several times before.  This image was of a young man all in white riding a Companion and looking very serious.

_:Being a Herald is a serious business.  You will be a symbol of strength and hope to the citizens of Valdemar, and a moving target to her enemies.:_

“That sounds a lot like being a dog of the military.”

Mageric seemed to be pondering that while Ed blew on his beans.

_:I believe that it is.  There is no denying that Heralds are human weapons.  But know this Edward: we will not ask you to do what was asked of your Flame Alchemist.  We protect our borders, sometimes violently, but we are not an expansionist nation.:_

“He’s not my Flame Alchemist.”  Ed felt his cheeks burning, and not from the beans.  “And that’s a pretty speech, but why should I trust you?”

 : _Have I not been forthright with you since we met, even at the cost of my own cause?:_

He had a point.  And when it came right down to it, this was the price of the deal he had made with the Truth to save Al, being a Herald for these people, and he would pay it gladly if it meant that somewhere Al was safe and alive.  But there was one more thing still bothering him.

“Am I going to have to wear that uniform?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still don't own anything, just having fun.


	3. Hospitality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duo and Ed have their first encounter with the human citizens of Valdemar, and learn a little more about each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the kudos and bookmarks, you guys are awesome!

 

The first thing Duo noticed upon waking was that he could feel the other minds in his vicinity.  Three sentient minds within feet of him, and countless animal minds nearby, including a few predators he would not have suspected were anywhere that close.  Flinging out his awareness, he could sense a clot of human minds some leagues to the south of them, and to the North was that a deer?  Was that a deer that was thinking like a person?  And then he got a little frightened at himself and locked up his awareness behind a shield as Ilyn had taught him to do during the night.

Edward was already awake and stirring something on the stove.  His hair was like burnished gold in the morning light, and his smile softened the angular features of his face.  “Good morning,” he said.  “We’ve got porridge for breakfast.  Mageric let us have a sugar cube to put in it.  It’s not as good as Granny’s, but it’s not too bad.”

Duo’s stomach growled with enthusiasm.  “Sounds awesome,” he said.  He was really not in a position to complain even if it were awful.

_:Feeling alright?:_

He had felt Ilyn checking him over since awakening.  Tentatively he sent out the thought, _:I don’t feel terrible_. _:_

_:Very good.:_   Ilyn’s mind-voice was bright with approval.

Duo accepted a tin bowl of porridge from Edward’s good hand, noting the blankets that he did not recall placing around himself before Ilyn had started showing him what he was in for. So Edward had tucked him in?  “Thanks,” he said, and decided to let Edward interpret that for however much he wished. 

Edward nodded.  “’Ur wlcmf,” he said around a mouthful of porridge.  He was digging in like he may never see porridge again.

Duo took a bite of his own and decided it beat the hell out of a ration bar.  “You’re in a better mood this morning.”

Edward shrugged.  “Gotta keep moving forward.”  He looked up and fixed those lambent eyes on Duo.  “You know what we’re here for, right?  Your Companion told you?”

“We’re Heralds.  Or, we will be.”

Edward nodded.  “Do you know what they’re going to make us wear?”

_:Oh, honestly,:_ Ilyn interjected.  _:He has been on about this all morning and part of last night.:_

“It’s leathers, right?”  Duo remembered seeing them on Ilyn during what he was beginning to think of as The Coma Tutorial.  He also knew from this that Ilyn had not always been in the shape of a horse.  And furthermore, that she and the other Companions really, really did not want other Heralds to catch on to that fact.  He supposed that he could understand not wanting to freak out new conscripts with the knowledge that your next tour of duty might be another whole lifetime.

“It’s not badass leathers, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Edward was saying.

Duo got an instant visual of red leather decorated with purple flame decals.  “Uh, no?”

“No!  It’s white with lace on it!  Lace!”  Just as clearly as the previous mental picture came an image of a man on Companion back wearing snow white leather trimmed extravagantly in giant panels of lace.  He looked like some sort of classic screen idol, with long hair which he proceeded to toss about his shoulders.  The Companion followed suit with some mane tossing.  There was an incoherent mental shout that Duo thought might have come from Mageric.

_:Oh, for-  Your whites will have embroidery, not lace, and certainly not that much.  And what is that preening he imagines you will be doing?  That is simply ridiculous; you would be laughed out of Haven.:_   This from Ilyn.

_:So that really came from Edward just now?:_

_:Oh yes.  He is a very powerful Projector who needs to learn how to control his volume.:_

Duo had a feeling Edward had already caught on to both their abilities in this regard and was beginning to have fun with it. 

After breakfast they wasted little time packing out, not that there was much to pack out as both young men had arrived with only the clothes on their backs.  Duo had to applaud Edward’s good taste in an all-black ensemble and braided hair, even if the coat was kind of brassy.  As the chill of the early spring morning warmed into a clear sunny day, Duo started to wonder if Edward was getting hot under those layers.  Duo’s suits were designed to wick away moisture and help regulate body temperature, but the textiles Edward was wearing looked early Industrial Age.  Come to think of it, Edward looked nearly as out of place in the saddle as Duo did.

_:Ilyn?:_

_:Yes Dearheart?:_

_:How is it that I understand both you and Edward so well?  Shouldn’t I be having language barrier issues?:_

_:Oh, Gether did that for you.:_

_:Gether?:_

_:The Dyheli.:_

_:The… Was he the stag?:_

_:Yes love.  You must prepare yourself to meet people who are not shaped as you are.  And not incidentally, we will need to get you and Edward both kitted out with better clothing at the next Guard Outpost.  His gaudy cloak aside, your own clothing is made of a material that will be difficult to explain to curious villagers.:_

_:Are we staying at a Guard Outpost tonight?:_ Duo wasn’t really looking forward to another meal of reconstituted dry food, even if it was slightly better than highly processed food.

_:No, tonight we will be staying at an inn if we make good time.  Maybe they’ll have apple pasties.:_

_:And if we don’t make good time?:_

_:We’ll camp.:_

_:Um, Ilyn?:_  

_:What is it, Dearheart?:_

This was going to be hard to ask, considering he had already spent a whole night in their company.  But they might be approaching other people soon, and he had to say something before he put anyone else at risk.

_:Aren’t you worried about my germs?:_

_:They were shed in the Void.:_

The Void.  That field of light where he’d been speaking to Shinigami.

_:Not quite, but close.:_

Duo supposed it made as much sense as anything else that had happened since that moment.  Here he sat with a relatively unharmed body, when his lungs should have been shredded into confetti by sudden decompression.  But if he was no longer a carrier for anything, did that mean his antibodies were gone too?

_:Do you mean your aura?  Your constitution is as hale as any I’ve seen before in a human.:_

_:You can see it?:_

_:Yes.  Your energy is a ripe blue-violet, like a fresh plum.:_

_:Oh.  That’s good?:_

_:I think so.  We can see a Healer to be certain, when we get to Haven.:_

Ilyn settled into the same loping pace she’d maintained the day before as Duo tried to get comfortable in the saddle.  He wasn’t all that practiced at horse-riding, but he had a notion she was moving faster than horses generally loped.

_:You are very observant, Chosen.  We do indeed travel faster than horses.  Much faster if the need should call for it, but that kind of magical expenditure would be very taxing on all of us and should be reserved for emergencies.:_

Magic.  Even prior to The Coma Tutorial, Duo had realized that it must exist here (as he had decided to accept that “here” was real and not an electrical impulse from his dying brain) simply because there was no better explanation for a resurrected soldier in the form of a telepathic horse.  Occam’s Razor and all of that.  But to think of it as a practical, everyday thing that you could harness like solar energy, it was incredible.

_:It is energy that flows through the earth in ley lines.  It is accessible only if you have the Mage Gift, or if you make a bargain with a powerful being.  I do not recommend walking blindly into the latter, by the way.  The price is too high to bear unless you are willing to sacrifice all.:_

_:The Mage Gift?  That’s not one that I have is it?:_

_:Only in potential.  You have a touch of ForeSight and Empathy, but only just a touch.  You may never experience them any more profoundly than a strong sense of déjà vu or a gut feeling about someone.  However, you more than make up for it with Mindspeech, Mindhearing and Thoughtsense.  Your capacity with those three Gifts could be compared to Lake Evendim, where most Heralds only get Crescent Lake, if that.:_

_:So it's big, huh?:_   'That's what he said' was on the tip of his brain, but Duo held it back. 

_:I was not referring to your tallywag.:_ Ilyn jostled him in the saddle in obvious rebuke.

He should have realized he couldn't hide that from her.  _:Sorry.  It’s just, you’re fun to tease.:_

_:Oh, am I?  I’ll remember that when you’re learning equitation at Collegium.:_

_:What is Collegium like?:_ Duo had a mental image of it being like the boarding schools where he’d hidden out with Heero during the war, where Heero would brood about the place like some Byronic hero, completely oblivious to all the female attention he was attracting.  It put a lump in his throat.

_:It is like that in some respects.:_   Ilyn’s mind-voice turned gentle.  _:The grounds are lovely, and the buildings venerable, and you will have to wear a uniform, though nothing so ornate as what you wore at those other schools.  We call them Grays.  And you will meet people, Duo.  Many Herald Trainees meet their future loves at Collegium.:_

Duo grinned.  Ilyn, he had learned, had a way of answering the question behind the question that he had actually asked.  _:So I’m not a lost cause, is what you’re saying?:_

Ilyn snorted.  _:Not even hardly.  At the risk of inflating your ego further, you’re a rare beauty:_ And here, Duo snorted. _:I’ll bet you even catch the eye of that temperamental Mage-Gifted to your left there.:_

Duo glanced left.  Edward was dozing upright in the saddle with his hands propped under the gullet, swaying like a sunflower.

_:So he gets the flashy Gift, eh?  Story of my life.:_

 

#

 

_:Chosen, wake up.:_

“Whazzat?”  Edward opened bleary eyes upon the heavenly sight of chimney smoke over the tree line ahead.  The sun was low in the sky, shining through the clouds like a prism.

_:We are nearing the inn.:_

“Mornin' sunshine.”  Duo Maxwell rode up with a wide open smile on his face.

“You didn’t need to let me sleep.” 

Maxwell’s face fell just the tiniest bit. 

“But, thanks.”

“Yeah, no sweat.”  The beatific smile was back.

“Did I miss anything important?”

“Nah, Ilyn and I have just been shooting the breeze.  She says this is a little family inn that has been here for generations and makes legendary apple pasties.  I’m not really sure what that is, but I’d eat stockpiled Twinkies right now, I’m so hungry.”

Ed’s stomach growled in sympathetic anticipation, even though he didn’t have any clue what a Twinkie was.  “Oh, damn I’m going to miss Winry’s apple pie,” he moaned.  He felt a sudden irrational desire for that chimney smoke to be coming from Granny’s house in Risembool.  Just turn the bend in the road up ahead and there it would be, with an angry blonde brandishing a wrench out of one of the upper storey windows.  Of course that’s not what he was going to see, he knew it and had to brace his aching body and soul for it.

_:If you have a recipe I can have it relayed to the Collegium cooks.:_

“I do, but I don’t know if they can lay hands on all the ingredients.”

_:They will relish the challenge of trying, and you may yet taste Winry’s Apple Pie again.:_

Ed smiled sadly.  He might taste an apple pie like Winry’s, but it wouldn’t really be Winry’s and that was the truth of it.

When they finally cleared the tree line, a brown brick cottage with a collar beam roof awaited them.  As they drew closer, a young boy ran down the long, narrow cobblestone drive.  He looked to be about the same age as Ed had been when he’d made the greatest mistake of his life.  The child was running barefoot, but his shirt and breeches looked clean.  He didn’t look too surprised to see the Companions.

“I’m sent to ask what sirs’ll be wanting for supper,” he asked, slightly out of breath.

_:What he has actually been sent to find out is if you will be requiring a three course meal at the table or a small meal sent to your room.:_

Ed had wondered.  He was an old hand at eating at lodges, and figured a place this remote wouldn’t be able to fill any fanciful order he dreamed up.  They’d have menu options determined by what was in the larder.

“Ilyn wants to know if you have apple pasties,” Duo said.

“Aye, she have, and a fresh-killed rabbit in the pot and spring onions too!”

“Is she making stew?” Ed asked wistfully.  Even if it wasn’t Granny’s, he’d never met a stew he didn’t like.  The boy excitedly said yes, and after receiving the okay for stew and pasties for the humans and oat mash for the Companions, he ran ahead to tell the cook, whom Ed was reasonably sure was also his mother.

A slightly older boy met them at the stable.  “Welcome to Sweet Grass Valley Inn.  I can take care o’yer Companions for ye sirs, ye needn’t worry ‘bout a thing.”

_:It’s alright, he seems capable enough.  When you are fully trained you will not wish to leave this chore to another, but we can save the learning for a time when you are not so overwhelmed with unfamiliar things.  I do expect you to bring me one of those pasties, though.:_

“But, how will I be able to ask you things if you’re in here and I’m in there?”  Ed noticed that Duo was observing them curiously.  The stable boy, however, did not seem the least bit phased that Ed was apparently talking to his horse.

_:The same way I am conversing with you now, Edward.  You can speak to me in kind.  The distance between the outbuildings and the main house will not impede our speaking mind to mind.  Duo and Ilyn have been nattering at each other all day in this manner, it’s time we showed them up.:_

“But, I’m not the telepath?”

_:Mindspeaker.  And you do have a strong Projecting ability, or did you not realize that everyone was treated to your little play about the dandy Herald and his foppish Companion earlier today?:_

“So, I am a telepath?”

_:Mindspeaker.  And, no, at least not in the way that Duo is.  You have some aspects of the Gift and it is allowing you to Project your thoughts very loudly at anyone in the vicinity with any degree of the Hearing part of the Gift.  You can Project to me from the house and I will Hear you in the stable.  And I will respond.:_

**_:Like this?:_ **

“Damn, Dude!”  Duo shook his head like he was shaking out cobwebs, and Ilyn whickered.

_:Adjust your volume please Edward.:_

Woops.  _:Sorry.:_

_:That’s better.  Edward, at some point we will need to find both you and Duo more suitable clothes.:_

_:What’s wrong with what I’ve got on?:_

_:Nothing, except that it is obviously foreign.  The extent to which it is foreign will become obvious if you allow the lady of the house to wash your clothes.  She will ask, you should politely refuse.  Ilyn is telling Duo much the same thing right now.:_

Ed glanced over at the other young man, who was dismounting and removing Ilyn’s saddlebags but whose eyes seemed far away from the present.

_:Please do allow her to draw you a bath, however.  You are both beginning to smell a bit gamey.:_

 

#

 

After a solid day of riding, which Ilyn had informed him was not the longest ride he was going to have to slog during his career, Duo was glad to see a hot meal and a soft bed in his future.  At least, he hoped the bed was soft.

_:You’ve slept in far worse places Chosen.:_

_:I’ll take your word for it.  Why am I not asking the innkeeper for fresh clothes again?:_

_:Because they probably don’t have any to spare.  Remember-:_

_:Don’t let her wash or mend mine, I remember.  Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.  This ain’t my first rodeo.:_

_:I’ll leave you to it then.  Have pleasant dreams, and if you should need me I will answer your call.  Please try to save your emergencies until after dinner if at all possible though.:_   Ilyn gave him a wave with her tail that was downright sassy as she followed the stable boy toward the mangers.

_:I’ll try to be thoughtful about scheduling my next disaster.:_   But Duo could hardly blame her since he was looking forward to the evening meal with keen anticipation himself.

The inn’s great room interior was walled in the same brick as the exterior, with exposed wooden beams and a hardwood floor that was scuffed but clean.  A farmhouse table with two low benches dominated the space, which was warmed by the fire in a large stone hearth.  The most delightful smells wafted from somewhere deeper in the house.  Duo’s stomach made a noise of expectant joy so loud that Edward gave him an arch look.

“Down boy,” Duo told his stomach.

“I trust my boys have been making ye welcome?”   A blonde woman in a calico dress approached them from the stairs.  If she was the mother to both boys then she must have started young.  As Duo and Edward both reassured her of her progeny’s good behavior, she began leading them up the stairs.

“I’ve had Maidie draw ye a bath so ye can wash up before supper.  Will ye be taking it in your room or in the great room?”

Ilyn had already schooled Duo on this, and apparently Mageric had done the same for Edward: in their room, both for the privacy and the fact that it saved the innkeepers the chore of cleaning an extra room later.  Duo wondered if the family might like some company to make it more worth their while. He knew he would have in their place.  Ilyn had reminded him that they would ask him questions that he would not be able to answer as honestly as he might prefer, so he relented to her wisdom.

The innkeeper, who introduced herself as Lottie, opened a second floor door (outward, not inward, which was going to become a security issue if all the local inns were like this) onto a tidy room with a canopied bed near the fireplace.  Directly in front of the fireplace stood the fair young Maidie, filling a galvanized tub with warm water from buckets hanging over the fire.  Thin cloth towels had been draped over a rack before the fire to warm them.

“Maidie and I can mend and wash yer clothes and have them fresh by the morning.”  Duo and Edward stumbled over one another in refraining, causing the women to eye them somewhat skeptically.  It was Edward who saved the moment by blurting out what was foremost in his thoughts (he was making an effort to keep his mental voice quieter but he was still damn loud).

“We don’t have any other clothes to wear.”

“Bless!” said Maidie.  “Not even nightclothes?”  She appeared to be trying to imagine what that might look like.

“Nope.”  Edward seemed blissfully oblivious to the jailbait eyeing him like a prize stallion.

“We are on our way to Collegium.” Duo said, “Our Companions have only just Chosen us and they carried us away on the spot.  It was very sudden.”  That was more or less true on his part, and he had an idea on Edward’s part as well.

“I have heard of such things happening,” Lottie said.  “We get Heralds come through here every season, but never seen freshly Chosen afore.”

“Last season a Bard sung about one taken right out of the fires of Karse!”  Maidie was definitely aiming romantic notions in Edward’s general direction; there was no doubt about it.

_:It was a fire IN Karse.:_   Ilyn sounded very amused.  _:All of Karse is not perpetually on fire.:_

“Are you a soldier out of Karse, persecuted for your Magic and rescued across the border?” Maidie was asking a flummoxed Edward.

“Girl, we are hell-and-a-gone away from Karse, these boys are no Karsites.”  Then she squinted at Edward.  “Are you?”

“Aaaah…”  Edward scratched his head.

_:Iftel.:_

_:Gesundheit?:_

_:Duo I have no idea what that means.  Tell her you are from Iftel.  It is a country to the East whose borders have only recently opened, so she’ll not likely have a point of reference to contradict your claim.:_

This was a bald-faced lie and Duo was not entirely comfortable with it.  But it gave him an idea.

“I come from a distant land to the East,” he said.  That was sort of true, if you viewed Lagrange Point 2 on a diagram relative to planetary mass with an eye toward creative interpretation.  “I must confess, we are somewhat unfamiliar with your customs, but we are grateful for your hospitality.”  That was definitely true, and never had Duo felt more grateful to Quatre for insisting on teaching him polite elocution.

Lottie looked positively gobsmacked.  “Well stone the crows.  I don’t reckon I’ve ever met an Iftellian afore.”

“Former Iftellian, Mama.”  Maidie had taken advantage of her mother’s distraction to sidle right up next to Edward, and now even he was clued into her intentions.  “They be Valdemarran now.”

“So they be,” Lottie agreed.  “And ye be fresh, young hoyden!  Go to the cellar and fetch me a bottle of cider, off with ye!”

Edward’s golden skin took on a russet tinge as Maidie flounced from the room with the surly grace that only a teenaged girl could achieve.

“Please don’t pay any mind to her,” Lottie said as soon as Maidie had gone.  “She knows not much at her age, but thinks she knows everything.”

Duo figured she was less concerned with the notion of them taking offense and more concerned about her daughter’s virtue with two young men of mysterious provenance under her roof.  Well, he would just have to put her mind at ease.  And maybe satisfy his curiosity about something in the bargain.

“It’s alright,” he said, throwing an arm around a startled Edward’s shoulders and running a hand down his side.  “I can understand why she would want to flirt with this one.”  Yep.  Built like a truck.

“Oh!  Shaych are ye?  Well that’s fine; don’t see that much around here, heard it be more common among Herald folk.  Oh, don’t mind me minding yer business, carry on with yer bath and I’ll… I’ll bring yer supper up in a candlemark, listen for me knock if ye please!”  And with a mighty blush and a swish of skirts, Lottie fled the scene.

Duo grinned triumphantly at Edward, who was gazing back at him in open-mouthed stupefaction.  “What, who what?”

“That was me being awesome; you can thank me by scratching my back when your hand is feeling better.”

_:Modesty is a virtue dear Chosen.:_   Ilyn sounded more amused than chiding.

_:My people like to say that particular virtue is overrated.:_   Duo peeled himself out of his flight suit and started working on the enclosures for his dry suit.

_:Your people are my people now Dearheart.:_   Now Ilyn sounded quite serious, and while it made his chest ache to admit it, she did have a point.

_:Please tell me my people have a sense of humor.:_

_:Oh, my dearest_ _Chosen_ _.  You are home as long as you are with me, and I will never leave you.:_

She answered the question behind the question again, which reminded Duo of Sister Helen so long ago.  Now there was a lump in his throat to go with the ache in his chest.  He finished freeing himself of the close-fitting dry suit and turned to find Edward staring at him with an inscrutable look on his face.

“How did you know she wasn’t going to kick us out?”

 “Oh.”  It had not occurred to Duo that Edward might come from a society where sometimes love dare not speak its name.  “Um, Ilyn.  She told me that Heralds are all about the free love.”

Edward cocked his head to the side.  It was an oddly charming motion on him, perhaps because it revealed more of his strong neck.  Or maybe because he did not seem to be the type of person who would deliberately bare his neck to anyone.  “Free love?  You mean that we’re discouraged from getting married?”

_:Heralds may marry.  Many choose not to, as the advantages of marriage to a civilian are frequently disadvantages to a Herald.:_

“That’s not really what I meant.  I think that term means something different where I’m from.  I just meant that Heralds are allowed to love who they want, is all.”

“Who we want.”  Edward sounded thoughtful.  “Figuratively or literally?”

This conversation was taking an odd turn.  “Both, is what I gathered from Ilyn.”

_:You gathered correctly.:_

A bittersweet smile crept over Edward’s face.  “Guess it doesn’t really matter now.”

Ouch.  “I feel you, man.  I left a guy back home.  Well, I guess you could say he left me first.”  Duo laughed darkly.  “It still doesn’t make knowing I’ll never see him again any easier to deal with.”

Edward gazed at him with keener interest than he’d shown at any previous point in their brief acquaintance.  “You loved him?”

“I did.”  Oh, how he’d loved that infuriating asshole.  “I do.”  The fucker.

“Nobody ever told you it was hopeless to want him, that you should forget it and find a nice girl to settle down with?”  Edward was looking at him now like the answer to this question could solve something important for him.  Duo responded to that look, he felt a curious desire to lay the boy’s mind at rest, but that question was complicated and he was getting the distinct impression that he had better be absolutely clear about one thing.

“They did, actually,” he admitted.  “But not because he was a guy.”

 

#

 

_But not because he was a guy._

There was a long moment of silence while Ed took that in, turned it over in his mind, tried to comprehend it.  “But why?  If not because he was a man, then why?”

Duo snorted.  He was stripped down to a pair of black shorts that left very little to the imagination, so it was lucky that the anecdotes he was relating were so much more distracting than his body just then.  “Because he was kind of a jackass.”  Duo shrugged, seemed to remember that he had rather a lot of hair, and reached behind him to pull it forward over his shoulder.  “And there was a nice girl who wanted to settle down with me, as it so happened.  A lot of our friends thought I’d be better off pursuing her instead.”  He started unraveling the rope of hair.

“Would you have been?”  A lot of people back home had thought he would be better off pursuing Winry, but he had long felt that Al should defend his victory from when they had dueled over her hand as children.

“Maybe.  But it wouldn’t have been fair to Hilde.”

And that was the bottom line for him as well.  “I know what you mean.”

Duo looked up from his unbraiding and raised his eyebrows.

“Winry doesn’t deserve to be saddled with a husband who will always wish that something different had happened.”  She would have realized, sooner or later.  He had promised her that he wouldn’t cause her any more tears, and he had meant it.

“Somebody smarter than me once said it’s not nice to lead a lady on.”  Duo flicked his loose hair back over his shoulder.  “I hope you don’t mind me rinsing out my hair, it hasn’t seen soap or water since I shipped out three days ago.”  A dawning expression took hold of his features.  “Oh, hey man, I’m sorry I should have realized, you’ve got a burned hand!  Do you need help with um…”  He had a complexion Granny would have called peaches and cream, and when he blushed the apples of his cheeks turned rosy pink.

Ed chuckled.  “You’ve already manhandled me once tonight; I don’t see why you can’t help me with the buttons.”

“Heh.  Right.”  And then Duo Maxwell stepped right up to him and at this range it was impossible to ignore his body.  He had a lean build, long-limbed in proportion to his torso but not tall.  His musculature was all swooping arcs and dips, slim but not gangling, defined but not cut.  He had seen men muscled up from farm work, military exercises and physical therapy, but he had never seen anyone built quite like Duo.  What kind of activity resulted in muscles like that?

“Two words for ya pal: centrifugal force.”

Evidently he was still thinking too loud.  Duo smelt of a mix of lavender, sweat, and something ozonic that reminded Ed of the sharp scent of a fresh transmutation.  His fingers, nimbly working free the buttons, looked rough but not scarred.  “There.”  He popped the last button free on Ed’s jacket and pushed it off his shoulders taking the now-uneven red cloak with it.

“Um.  Thanks.”

Duo smirked.  “No sweat.  Need help with the boots?”

“Nah.  They’re easy to take off.”

“Suit yourself.”  And with no further ado, Duo stepped back and shucked out of his shorts.  “Mind if I jump on in?”

“Someone should enjoy it while it’s warm.”  And the sooner Duo knelt in the tub, the sooner it would be safe for Ed to look down.  He had gotten a glimpse in spite of himself and concluded that Duo Maxwell was genetically blessed.  There was no other explanation for how the guy didn’t seem to have a bad angle ANYWHERE.

Ed turned his back and divested himself of the rest of his clothes.  His returned limbs were entirely clear to his view for the first time since he’d gotten them back and he couldn’t help but stop what he was doing to stare at them.  The pale and atrophied arm and leg illuminated in the fireplace’s glow were as stark a contrast to the rest of him as the automail had once been.  As unhealthy as they looked now they were still glorious to his sight.  He let his eyes roam over the bony arm from shoulder to wrist, and then gazed into his own right hand, still bandaged.  He might be able to write with this hand again.

_:Yes Chosen, I am sure of it.  We have Healers at Collegium who can help you.  You will be restored to your full strength.:_   Mageric sounded sleepy.  _:Now get in the tub before Duo uses up all the soap on that hair.:_

#

Edward was staring at his own arm like he hadn’t seen it for years.  It was hard not to stare right along with him.  If not for the perfect symmetry of the bone structure it would appear as if someone had plucked the arm off of another man and stuck it onto Edward.  Yet even with the two frail limbs, he was striking to behold in the firelight.  He had a powerful core, the kind that suggested a background in martial arts.  His coloring was a variation on gold from head to foot, even his body hair.

Duo chided himself for being a creeper and turned his attention to making at least a passing attempt at cleaning his own hair.  Lottie had left them a bar of vegetable soap that smelled faintly of lilacs.  Duo used the dipper to douse his hair as best he could with the lukewarm water and then started scrubbing his scalp with the soap.  “Man, no wonder pioneer people cut it all off or stuffed it under a bonnet.”

“Why did you grow it so long?”

Duo squinted out from under a layer of lather as one well-turned leg stepped into the tub, followed by one skinny leg.

“It’s a memorial,” he said, still scrubbing.  “When I was first taken to the orphanage I didn’t want to have it cut.  I was being a stubborn little shit, but Sister Helen told me I could keep it if I promised to take care of it and learn to braid it.  I guess I’m still keeping my promise.”

“Huh.”  There was a soft sploosh of displaced water as Edward lowered himself into the tub.  “I kind of did the same thing.  My mother liked it long. Besides, if she couldn’t trim it, I didn’t want anyone else doing it either.  Pass the soap wouldja?”

He did.  They bathed in companionable silence and were presentable again by the time Lottie returned with the food.  When she came back she had a thoroughly chastened Maidie with her, along with the boys, Aldous and Birch.  Lottie and Birch, the younger boy, set out the food on a wooden tray table, while Maidie and Aldous, the elder boy, lugged the water-filled tub out of the room. 

The spread was fine, with a tureen of steaming hot stew, a plate full of apple pasties, a carafe filled with cold cider and a loaf of soda bread for sopping up the stew.  There was also bark arrayed in strips next to the place settings.  Maybe it was table dressing?  Lottie told them to leave the dishes outside the door when they were done and bid them goodnight.  The smell was so distracting that Duo did not notice that there was no silverware until she and the children had gone.

_:Oh!  My goodness, I didn’t even realize this could come up.  It’s customary out here in the country to bring your own cutlery wherever you go.  Come bring me pasties and I’ll tell you where the packs are stowed.:_

Duo did not believe for one minute that she had forgotten, but after extracting a promise from Edward not to eat all the dinner while he was gone, he grabbed pasties for Ilyn and Mageric and slipped down the stairs and out to the stables.  She had carried him all day and she deserved a pasty, even if she had stooped to chicanery to get it before the morning.

Outside he could almost have believed he were walking through the gloaming on Earth, except that he had never heard that bird call before, and the moon looked lower and heavier in the sky than he remembered.  It was a little spooky.  When he entered Ilyn’s stall he pushed up against her warm side and she snuffled his hair.

_:You smell better.:_

_:Aw gee thanks.  Here’s a pasty.  Silverware?:_

He held the apple pasty up for her approval.  She wasted no time chomping it out of his hand.

_:Packs are on the shelf by the door.  And that bark is for your teeth, silly.  Thank you for bringing us pasties.:_

A bump on Duo’s shoulder nearly scared the life out of him, but it was only Mageric leaning over his stall to get his share of pasties.  Duo obliged him, grabbed the pack and skedaddled back to find Edward had waited on him like one pig waits for another, using a crust of soda bread as a utensil.  Luckily Edward had not had time to eat more than his own share, but Duo could see that he was going to have to get mercenary about the food arrangements if he ever expected to eat any that wasn’t picked over. 

When dinner was done, bark chewed and the plates pushed out the door, they peeled back the bed canopy and wow, was that bed tiny.  It looked cozy, with bed linens that looked like actual linen, a quilt, and a little round pillow for each of them.  But if both of them fit in it together it would only be by spooning.  He looked at Edward, who shrugged and kicked off his boots.

“Beats the floor,” he said, throwing himself down on top of the covers.  Edward was out in seconds.

Duo stared down at his sleeping face before deciding, “When you’re right, you’re right.”  He had to shove a little to get under the covers with Edward pinning them down.  The guy didn’t as much as twitch.  The mattress was filled with feathers that gave under Duo’s weight like a fluffy cloud, and he was asleep before he’d even registered that he was falling.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Edited for one typo of magnificent proportions.


	4. Amphilogies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duo learns about Edward's short-stack button.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for the kudos!

 

Warm breath and soft hair tickled Ed awake and he was alert within seconds because, as deeply as he slept, he had not slept with another person in the bed since childhood when he had shared with Al.

He turned his head.  Duo was snuggled up against his side with a leg thrown over one of his, and in so doing he had thrown the quilt off himself and over Ed.  A sunbeam shone through the window and slanted across their twined bodies because they had forgotten to close the canopy.  Duo’s face was pressed against Ed’s neck.  Hence the tickle.

Ed had imagined a situation like this many times.  It had always involved a particular dark-haired older man, though, and it had never actually HAPPENED.  And now, in spite of the fact that Duo was not someone he had ever envisioned waking up next to, his body was responding to the actual fact of having a good-looking man pressed up next to him.  Instead of receding like normal, his morning glory was increasing.

“Oh, no no no nono…”

Duo stirred and muttered something that sounded like, “Stop hogging the covers, hero.”  And then he _wriggled_ , and Ed was sure he was on the verge of embarrassing himself.  _Quick, think of Maes Hughes showing up with a stack of pictures of Elicia_.  His penis retreated in mortification.  Disaster averted.

Duo opened sleepy eyes and blinked, pushed himself up on an enviably healthy right arm, and blinked some more.  He had really long lashes.

“You’re not hero.”  He sounded resigned.

That was just not fair.  “I am so a hero.”  Even if nobody here knew it.

“No, I mean...”  He pursed his lips.  “Never mind.”  Duo left the bed and stretched full length, displaying why his body was an excellent example of the Golden Ratio in motion.  “I hope this place has something like coffee.”  He snagged his strange footwear – they kind of looked like galoshes – and headed for the door.

Ed smacked his head back against the pillow and cursed his bizarre luck.

_:I know you’re a hero, Chosen.:_   Mageric’s mindvoice was soothing.  _:That wasn’t about you just now, what Duo said to you.:_

_:I’m not sure why I care.:_   Ed scowled as he cast about looking for his own boots.

_:You’ll figure it out.:_   Now Mageric sounded amused.  _:In the meantime, Lottie has gone to some trouble for your breakfast.  Make sure and ask for a traveling packet from her as well.  We’ll be leaving right after the morning meal and I would prefer not to lose time foraging for the_ _midday_ _meal.:_

_:Do you need anything?:_   Out of long-ingrained habit, Ed moved about the room looking for anything he might have forgotten.

_:Aldous is fixing my morning mash as we speak.  Lottie will have a marker to give you so that Collegium will cover your bill. Oh, make sure Duo doesn’t leave that cutlery in your room.:_

Ed spotted the dull shine of pewter on the tray table and snatched up the flatware.  _:Done.:_   The blue leather pommel bag sat by the door.  Duo must have thought they would be coming back up here again before taking their leave.  Ed was reaching down to pick it up when the door opened and there stood the forgetful man in question.

“Sorry.”  He was blushing again.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Breakfast was buttered eggs served on thick slices of toasted bread, along with a pot of very strong tea and a small jug of fresh cream.  Ed was grateful that the food in this place was not so foreign that he did not recognize it.  He glanced over at Duo, who looked wistful about the tea but drank it just the same.

“You don’t like tea?” Ed asked sotto voce, so their hostess would not hear and be offended.

“I love tea,” Duo said.  “Just not for breakfast.”  He eyed Ed’s earthenware cup of dark brew.  “You don’t like milk?”

“Blargh!”  Ed shuddered at the thought of it.  “No!”  He prepared himself for the usual lecture, but Duo just chuckled and returned his attention to his meal.

Nobody was going to force him to drink milk?

_:Why would anyone want to do that?  If you don’t drink the milk, there’s more for the others.:_ Mageric sounded genuinely mystified about this.

Ed pondered a future where he would never again be chastised for not wanting to drink the mucus from a cow.  It made him feel a little better about having to wear a froufrou uniform.

Lottie and Aldous saw them off with two packets stuffed with apples, wax-wrapped farm cheese, cottage loaves and pickled eggs.

_:Try to go easy on those packets, Edward, if the weather turns on us we may need to make them last.:_

Ed pouted.  _:Where are we stopping today?:_

_:Guard Outpost near Westmark.  Hopefully they’ll have some castoffs we can put you and Duo in so that you don’t look so conspicuously foreign.:_

Ed took in the changing scenery.  Unlike yesterday, the countryside today bore signs of human travel.  The meadow they trod had carriage ruts in it.

_:Is that a bad thing?  That we’re foreign?:_

Mageric was quiet for a few moments.  A spotted butterfly investigated his ear, he flicked it away.  _:They have gotten much better about such things.  The Karsite you heard Maidie going on about last night was the Weaponsmaster at Collegium for many years.  If he can manage to fit in well enough to become a maiden’s romantic fantasy, you and Duo surely can.:_

“I don’t wanna be a maiden’s romantic fantasy!”

This outburst startled a laugh out of Duo.

“It’s not funny!” 

This could turn out like Mei Chang all over again.  He instantly flashed on her angry little face when she’d discovered both he and his braid were shorter than she’d imagined.  He didn’t want to travel the countryside meeting outraged little girls everywhere he went.  Apparently he’d Projected all of that, because Duo nearly fell off Ilyn from laughing.  Ilyn jostled him in the saddle; he made a little moue of pain when his tailbone hit the seat.  Then he carried on laughing.  Ed crossed his arms and scowled.

“Aw, c’mon, don’t be mad!  It’s cute!”

“WHO ARE YOU CALLING AN ADORABLE LITTLE KITTEN WHO COULD FIT IN A TEACUP?”

Now it was Mageric’s turn to jounce Ed in the saddle, and Ed’s turn to scramble to hold onto the saddle horn.

_:Chosen, he did not say that.:_

“I didn’t say that.”  Duo’s face was still bright with mirth.  “But ya’know, you are kind of adorable, even with the frowny face thing going on.”  Ilyn bounced Duo hard enough to clack his teeth.  “Ow!”

_:All right, he might be baiting you.  But you are allowing it.:_

“You’re a fine one to call people names like cute and adorable.”

“I wasn’t aware they were dirty words.”  Duo seemed to have vented most of his manic energy.  “But thanks for noticing I’m adorable.”  He waggled his eyebrows.

“Hmph.”

They rode in restive silence until the Companions decided to stop for lunch.  As they passed the packets between them, Duo’s shoulders hunched with contrition.

“Listen, man, I’m really sorry.  I didn’t mean to imply you were short- “

Ed’s holler was loud enough to flush the birds from the trees.

The remainder of the day’s ride was passed in a tense standoff between the two humans, capped off by a sudden downpour that drenched them all thoroughly by the time the Guard Outpost’s lights broke the gloom ahead.

As they came within sight of the first sentry, Mageric mindspoke for the first time in hours.

_:_ _Chosen_ _, please try and remember that he was attempting to apologize.:_

#

 

Ilyn talked Duo through how to make her more comfortable after their dash through the rain.  She’d asked him to start with something called a sweat scraper to slough the water off of her, and then rub her down with a burlap cloth, then again with a chamois.  Then she’d explained how the wool rug went on, since it seemed to have been designed by Dr. Seuss for a horse in Whoville.  Now she was daintily lifting a silver hoof and gazing at him in expectation while he held a tool that looked too pointy to go in anyone’s foot.

_:It’s a hoof pick, Dearheart.  It’s supposed to be pointy.  Think of it like cleaning under a finger nail:_

He grasped her front left ankle where she told him to.  “You’re sure this isn’t going to hurt?”

_:As long as you care enough to be so concerned about it I am confident that I will be fine.:_

Two stalls over, Edward was going through a similar rigmarole with Mageric, only he seemed to be catching onto it faster.  He turned his golden head when Duo spoke aloud, then turned away as quickly when he noticed Duo looking back at him.

_:Mageric tells me he comes from farm country, so he’s probably seen this done before.:_

_:I wasn’t jealous.:_

_:I know love.  But he’s more sensitive than he likes to let on.:_

Duo pursed his lips as he maneuvered around a triangular shape in her hoof that he understood from her surface thoughts was called a frog.  _:I wouldn’t have guessed.:_

_:You also don’t seem to have guessed your own affect on other people.:_

Duo squirmed as he pried mud and pebbles out of the sole.  _:I’m a loudmouth, irreverent, an idiot.  I’ve heard all that before.:_

He felt the shock coming off of her before she pulled her leg out of his grasp.  She turned her head to glare at him out of one eye the color and temper of burning fuel.

_:You are not an idiot.  You get that out of your mind right now.:_

Being chastised for calling himself an idiot?  This was a first.  _:Okay.:_

_:If anyone’s the idiot it’s the one who said that to you.  Let’s work on the rear hoof on this side.:_

They continued in silence for a few minutes until she mindspoke again.

_:What I meant to say was you don’t realize your affect on people who find you attractive.:_

_:Say WHAT?:_

#

 

Ed listened intently as Mageric explained what he needed to do, and was relieved to find that much of it was similar to things he’d seen Pitt’s father do a hundred times before during his childhood.  There were notable differences, especially in the shape of the hooves, but he was getting the gist.  Who would have thought helping herd sheep just to bug Pitt could prepare him for this?

“You’re sure this isn’t going to hurt?”

Ed glanced over to see Duo just getting started on his first hoof.  Violet eyes raised and met his, and he turned away.  Should’ve realized a telepath would know when someone was looking at him.

: _Mindspeaker,:_ Mageric corrected.  _:And that’s not the reason he knew you were watching.:_

Ed felt the flush creeping up the back of his neck.  _:Am I that obvious?:_

_:No.  At least, not in the way you’re afraid of.  He looked over at you because he is as aware of you as you are of him.:_

Ed scoffed.  _:Me?  I’ve deformed myself.  Why would he be aware of me?:_

Mageric fixed upon him a gimlet eye.  _:You are so dense sometimes I want to kick some sense into you.  Your physical ailments are not the only things there are to know about you.  Try looking in a mirror sometime and look past your arm and leg.  Then you will know why he is aware of you.:_

Chastened, Ed finishing cleaning out Mageric’s hooves in silence, until Mageric broke it again with Mindspeech.

_:Part of it is a high degree of situational awareness due to a difficult childhood, or so Ilyn tells_ _me._ _:_

Ed nodded, feeling unaccountably disappointed at the amendment to Mageric’s assumption.

_:But part of it is you, Hardhead.  Don’t expect him to warm up too fast.  Ilyn says he is heart-wounded.  That’s what that business was about this morning; it was no slight on you.  If anything, the fact that he has noticed you in spite of a heart-wound should give you a boost.:_

Ed did not feel boosted.  He felt kind of like a heel.

Mageric gave him a friendly nuzzle.  _:You are too quick to assume blame.  I’d tell you again that it had nothing to do with you, but you’d probably blame yourself for making me repeat myself.:_

Ed snorted, but his heart felt lighter.

_:One nice thing you can do for me, though, is to bathe again.  You smell like an ox.:_

 

#

 

Once at the Guard Outpost, Ed and Duo met two Trevors, three Jons and a Reva.  It was this last individual who led them to a tiled room that had seven white tubs lined up against a wall underneath a snake’s nest of pipes.

“Water closet’s across the hall,” Reva told them cheerfully.  “I’ll bring ye up some castoffs to replace yer muddies.”  She tossed them each a towel and took her leave of them.

Duo wasted no time peeling off his filthy layers.  Ed decided that if Duo was not going to act self-conscious after earlier, then neither was he, and he did the same.  At least this time they didn’t have to share the same tub.

He was just leaning back into steaming hot water when Reva bounced back into the room with a stack of clothes in her arms.

“Don’t mind me; I’m not looking at yer jackos.”  Still sounding chipper, she left the clothes on a chair near the door and bounced back out again.

He met Duo’s eyes across the room.  Duo looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh.

“Guess being naked’s no big thing around here,” Duo said.

Ed smiled back.  “Sure didn’t seem to bother her.”

And with that, the day’s tension was gone.  They spent a solid hour in the tubs chatting about nothing much and enjoying the respite.  In addition to finer milled soap than the inn had supplied, the Guard Outpost supplied tins of powdered dentifrice that smelled kind of spicy and tasted like honey.  Ed almost felt like his old self. 

Then he got out and had a good look at the castoffs waiting for them.  They were decommissioned Guard’s uniforms, washed until the royal blue had faded to a dingy light blue-grey rendering them unfit for duty, but fine for a pair of newly Chosen with no clean clothes.

It seemed that no matter where he went, Ed was not going to be able to get away from people asking him to put on a blue butt skirt.

 

#

 

The replacement clothes consisted of flannel drawers and undershirt with worsted wool tunic and trews, knit socks, and black leather boots.  Or at least, the boots had once been black.  They had faded to a mottled dark gray.

Edward had put on the undergarments and trews but was eyeballing the tunic with distaste.  Duo put his on and tied it off with the silver belt.  Color aside, it of reminded him of his altar boy’s uniform from many years past.

“It’s pretty comfortable,” he said to Edward, who looked dubious but threw the tunic over his head.  Duo thought he heard a mutter that sounded like “butt skirt” before Edward’s face reappeared as the tunic settled over his torso.

“Well?”

Edward pulled a face as he yanked his blond hair out of the neckline.  “I guess it’s not so bad.”

Footsteps rang down the hall outside.  Reva called, “All decent in there?” from without the door as if she hadn’t walked in on them once already.

“We’re covered,” Duo called back.  He was inclined to like the girl, if only because she’d made Edward blush.  Plus she reminded him more than a little of Hilde.

“Excellent!”  The door cracked open to reveal her shit-eating grin.  “Follow me to the mess.  Cookie’s got summat for ye to eat.”

“Now you’re talking!”  Whatever misgivings Edward had about the hospitality up ‘til now were apparently appeased with the promise of food.  He shot past Duo with his belt still in his hand.

Cookie, a strapping fellow whose given name was actually Veth, was waiting for them with brown bread, smoked sausage, slabs of hard cheese and sliced radishes, and beer to wash it all down.  Duo was so deliriously happy with the beer he asked Cookie for his hand in marriage.  Cookie, visibly amused, politely declined.

Edward interrupted these proceedings with a long, loud belch.

“That’s all the thanks I need,” said Cookie.  “That, and a hand washing yon dishes.”

Between the three of them the chore was done in less than an hour.  By then, night had well and truly fallen.  Cookie lit a lantern before banking the fire in the hob, and led them up a flight of stairs to where they would be spending the night.

“Yer lucky.  Ye’d be staying in barracks with all o’us sweaty meatheads but the priest got called away to Haven so ye kin have his quarters tonight instead. Ye’ll have to sleep in yer braies though.”

He opened the door on a modest room containing a wooden desk and chair, a footlocker, a changing screen, and a rope bed with a trundle.  He lit another lantern on the desk, bid them goodnight and then left them alone to negotiate who had to sleep in the trundle.

Bed linens had been left neatly folded at the end of the bed.  Without a word of argument, Edward picked up a set and began making up the trundle bed.

“You don’t have to,” Duo said.  He’d slept in his cramped Gundam cockpit many times, so a trundle hardly represented a hardship to him.

Edward smiled, looking as tired as Duo felt.  “It’s okay.  This way if I fall out of bed I don’t have as far to fall.”

Duo didn’t recall Edward falling out of bed the previous evening, but then he’d latched himself to Edward’s side like a lamprey at some point during the night so maybe that was why.

“All right,” he said, “but next time it’ll be my turn.”

Edward looked up, eyebrows raised.  “Equivalent exchange?”

“Yeah sure, why not?” 

“Then this is payback for yesterday.”

“For… you mean for when I felt you up so the innkeeper wouldn’t feel the need to spend the night outside our room with a shotgun?”

“I don’t think they have shotguns here,” Edward answered, “but yes.”

“But…”  But Duo had actually enjoyed that, much as he had claimed it as a favor at the time.

_:Let him have this, Dearheart.  He needs to feel equal.:_

“Okay.”

Duo turned down the lamp and the covers and went to bed wondering about that phrase, equivalent exchange.  Edward had uttered it with the same reverence that Duo usually reserved for his insistence on not lying.  The kid was a caution that was for sure.

 


	5. Optical Phenomena

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ed and Duo meet their first Heralds. Wackiness ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for the kudos and bookmarks!

 

Pealing bells woke Duo from a half-remembered dream about his long-lost soul brother Solo.  He didn’t need to remember all of it to know the plot because it was familiar enough from repetition.  He cracked his eyes open in the semidarkness.  A high-set window let in a meager portion of morning light.  He leaned up on one elbow and peered down at the trundle.

Edward was still fast asleep, spread out as well as one could on a trundle bed.  It was rather impressive, really.  He claimed every square inch of that bed with sprawling limbs.  One hand rested on his belly that had somehow become exposed in the night, the other trailed on the floor.  His profile limned in soft focus lent him an angelic air that he did not possess in wakeful motion.

“Hey,” Duo said. 

Edward didn’t stir.

“Wake up.”  Duo reached out tentatively and touched his right shoulder. 

Edward startled and glared up at him, bleary-eyed.  “What?”

“It’s morning.  They’re ringing the bell for breakfast.”

“Food?”  At once, Edward rolled out of the bed and started dressing.

“Good morning to you too.”

Edward paused in the middle of yanking on his trews.  “Morning,” he said, and then continued pulling on clothes.

Duo grinned and followed suit.  That one had a one track mind and the track led straight to his belly.

The mess was full of guard folk when they arrived.  Duo found the end of the chow line and, much to his surprise Edward joined him there instead of trying to cut ahead.  He realized that there was still plenty he didn’t know about the other guy.  Sometimes he acted like a ground pounder fresh off the shuttle, other times he showed signs of maybe having a military background. 

Whatever disciplined reserve Edward possessed disappeared when he got a plate to fill, as he piled it high with sausages, toast, hotcakes and fried apples.  Duo decided to have a bowl of porridge instead because it had berries in it.  He liked berries and had only ever gotten to eat them when he was roughing it in his Gundam on Earth.  He poured honey on top of the porridge, and bless all the souls in this outpost, they had hot chocolate!  It still wasn’t coffee, but it would do.

Reva spotted them in line and waved them over to her table with a friendly “Oi!”  Duo and Edward joined her group and were promptly regaled with stories about Heralds, and not the sentimental kind.  It would appear that Heralds took their mandate to work hard and party harder very seriously.

Even Edward was compelled to stop chewing in slack-jawed amazement at one story.  “On a chandelier?”

“Aye,” Reva said, but there was a twinkle in her eye that told Duo that she might be fucking with them.  “And then both of ‘em jumped down and rode off on Companions like t’weren’t nothing.”

_:She’s putting us on isn’t she?:_

Duo had felt Ilyn’s sleepy awareness at the back of his mind and knew that she had just been served breakfast herself, so he wasn’t sure if she would respond, but she did.

_:Given the athletic reputations of the two Heralds she’s talking about, she might only be exaggerating a little bit.:_

_:And by athletic, do you mean- :_

_:Shut it.:_

The rest of the morning was occupied with helping Cookie with KP, collecting meal packets from him and then learning how to tack up the Companions.  They were back on the road before mid-morning.

They passed another uneventful day riding without even any poor weather to trouble them, another quiet night in a Waystation not dissimilar to the one where they’d spent their first night in this country, and then another day of riding through bucolic scenery before anything of real interest transpired.

They came upon another inn to pass the fifth night.  This one was much larger than the one run by Lottie and her children.  In the paddock watching their steady approach were two curious Companions.

 

#

 

_:You don’t have to answer any questions about where you’re from.  Rolan’s orders.  And if they press you, I will direct Pal and Mellee to straighten them out.:_

Pal and Mellee were the Companions whose eyes were practically on stalks watching them from the fence line.  If they were trying to be discreet by not coming into the stables to stare then they were failing miserably.  This was making Ed a little nervous again.  He still had vivid memories of being tossed out of inns when people got a load of his pocket watch.  Wooden porches were hurtful to the backside.

_:They will do no such thing.  Try following Duo’s lead.  For someone who dislikes lying so much he is very skilled at conversational evasions.:_

He probably disliked outright lying but viewed lies of omission as an unfortunate necessity.  Maes Hughes had been like that.  That attitude was probably what had gotten Hughes involved in Intelligence, or maybe Intelligence had provoked the attitude.  Ed felt the familiar dull ache in his chest that arrived on thinking of the complex man and wondered again what kind of background Duo had come from.  He was obviously ex-military of some sort, but what sort?

_:Ask him later.  I cannot believe you have spent nearly five days in one another’s company and all you’ve managed to converse about is food, soap and your respective appearances.:_

_:That’s not fair!  We talked about being orphans.  Besides, food is important.:_

_:I suppose I can grant you that, although you barely talked about being orphans at all.  That might be a good way to open up a deeper conversation with him, bringing up that topic again.:_

_:When did you become my social secretary?:_

_:When I Chose you, brat.:_

The inn had stable boys who would be only too glad to help them take care of their Companions, but who didn’t seem all that surprised when they were politely refused.  Mageric said he was intent on teaching Ed about every bit of his equipage, even before they arrived at Collegium.  Ed wasn’t a complete dumbass.  He knew that Mageric had picked up on his growing discomfort, and was grateful that he was letting him delay the inevitable.  

Duo didn’t seem too displeased about it either.  Ed finished grooming Mageric first and offered to help Duo with Ilyn.  Duo blessed him with one of his brilliant smiles and accepted.  Of course this meant that Duo finished grooming Ilyn sooner than he otherwise would have.  Maybe Ed should have offered only his company.

_:You should always offer both.:_ Mageric’s steady gaze over the stall door communicated that he was not going to let up about socializing Ed any time soon.  He had always gotten by with strangers in the past by presenting his pocket watch and waiting to see how people would react.  They’d either respect it or fight it, so Ed only had two set patterns he’d needed to remember: abide or kick ass.  Now he had to factor in new variables.  It was unsettling.  Sure he’d gotten along with Duo fairly well the last few days, that one argument aside, but he was beginning to have a suspicion that was owed more to Duo’s adaptability than his own. 

“Shall we check out the hospitality?”  Duo asked. 

Maybe it was time to start learning new patterns.  “Let’s do it.”

 

#

 

River Valley Inn was a majestically ramshackle construction of a very old stone building that had been expanded upon first with brick, then later with wood painted white. The overall impression was of a large bulwark cheerfully lifting its middle finger to the elements.  Duo could see people enjoying the safety of its wide front porch for an evening tipple.  Beside him, Edward marched along like he was bracing himself for a fight.

_:Should I be worried?:_

_:He has had some unusual experiences with meeting colleagues at inns.  Encourage him to follow your lead and everything should be fine.:_

_:You mean like with Lottie?:_

_:Just so, clever boy.:_

Duo nodded and smiled at people on the porch.  There were plenty of libations going around.  The mood was the sort of restive mellow that could abruptly turn rowdy with too much more drink or excitement.  Edward scowled at his feet until Duo poked him in the side.  He managed a half smile at the porch sitters as the two entered the inn proper.

The innkeeper had gone to some expense to tile over the floor.  Early evening light supplemented by wall sconces and a fire in the hearth provided a warm glow cast on a room filled with people laughing over food and tankards of ale.  As in the Spring Valley Inn, a staircase led up to the second floor, but where Lottie’s stairs were a straight flight to a single landing that opened directly onto the hall, this flight led to a narrow intermediate landing and then split in two. One flight curved to a balcony overlooking the common room, the other to a dimly lit hall where the sleeping rooms were probably located.  Merrymakers on the balcony conversed with broad gestures that caused their ale to slosh out of their tankards onto anyone standing directly below.

Someone clutched Duo’s shoulder and he steeled himself against the training that wanted him to grab that hand and flip its owner.  He glanced to the side and saw Edward looking kind of sheepish.

"They’re coming over here,” he said.

Two people dressed head to foot in white crossed the room to greet them, one male and one female, both young but not as young as Duo and Edward.  These Heralds must belong to the Companions in the paddock.  Time to turn on the Maxwell charm.

The man, a big blond dude who introduced himself as Wolff, appeared to have the same idea, stepping forward with a ready smile and a hand out.  When Duo grasped it, Wolff reached out with the other paw (he was really big) and squeezed Duo’s upper arm.  He seemed eager to give the impression that he was a teddy bear, but those slate blue eyes were far from derpy.

The woman, Bera, hung back smiling politely and let Wolff do most of the talking.  She was dark-haired and built like a whippet.  If Wolff was the ‘good cop,’ she must be a hellion as an interrogator.  Just as Duo was forming the thought, she raised one angled brow at him.  Thoughtsensing?  She grinned and smacked Wolff on one brawny arm.

“They’re onto us love.”

“Aw, I don’t get to play the sweet one very often.”

“Don’t fret yourself, another chance will come.”

They had divvied up the roles very well for having not had much chance to scout first.  It was Bera’s swooping eyebrows that had tripped them up, though they wouldn’t have had any reason to know that.  Bera would have never convinced Duo she was the sweet one with those eyebrows because he had never met anyone with eyebrows like that who wasn’t capable of being stone cold scary.

They were led to a table near the fire with a hot meal already waiting: a whole roast chicken with mashed turnips, apple pudding and a pitcher of mead.  By now Duo knew the drill and had made sure their silverware was in the pack he brought with him.  Edward fell upon the feast like he hadn’t already eaten his weight in blackberries during the ride, and that was the end of his evident discomfort.   

The two Heralds talked while Duo and Edward ate.  Wolff was local to the area, or had been before being tapped for duty.  Bera was from Lake Evendim, which was sounding less like Middle Earth and more like Crater Lake between Ilyn’s and Bera’s accounts of it.  Bera and Wolff had gone to Collegium together, been mentored together and had been working together on circuit for years, but they weren’t a couple.  The endearment of “love” seemed to be one that Bera used more casually than Duo was accustomed to. Sure enough, by the time they’d been in her company for an hour she was using it on Duo and Edward too.

Duo could feel her brushing his shields, a light touch with a question in it.  She knew he could sense her and was asking for permission to look deeper.  He wondered how much he was already giving away just because he was barely trained.  She’d already twigged to the mild eyebrow phobia, which meant that despite her talent being lower wattage, her training made her stealthier.  It kinda bugged him.  He was used to being the one flying under everybody’s radar.  He preferred it that way, most of the time.

_:Don’t worry love, you will get much better at this.  You’ll see.:_

Duo looked up from his pudding into dark eyes that were surprisingly sympathetic for being under pointy brows.

_:But what is radar and why do you like being underneath of it?:_

“Um, well…”  Explaining that would begin a conversation about home that he was not ready to have without Ilyn standing right next to him to run interference.  Possibly literally.  Bera was gazing at him with a look of fascinated bewilderment.  He must be letting something leak.  Quick, think of something else!

_:I’ve been driving all night my hand’s wet on the wheel.:_

“You see...”

_:There’s a voice in my head that drives my heel.:_

“About that.”

_:It’s my baby calling says ‘I need you here.’:_

“Wait, what the hell?”

_:And it’s a half past four and I’m shifting gear.:_

The song was much louder than seemed possible even for Duo’s deliberate ear-worm.  More to the point, other people were looking around and murmuring as if they heard it too.

“Where be the music coming from?”

“I don’t know, I don’t see the minstrels?”

_:When she is lonely and the longing gets too much, she sends a cable coming in from above, don’t need a phone at aaallllll.:_

As Golden Earring crescendoed to the chorus, Duo’s frantic survey found Edward sitting up straight at attention, chicken bone forgotten in one hand, in a classic listening pose.

“Are you… are you sending this out to the whole room?”

“Huh?”  Edward dropped the bone.  “Me?  You’re the one thinking the song.”

“I’m not thinking it that loud!”

“Who is Radar?”  Bera and Wolff both watched on avidly from across the table.  The question had come from Bera.  “Why is he such an exceptional lover?  Can I meet him?”

Instantly, an image formed in Duo’s mind of a slight man with a thatch of dark hair and huge glasses, staring fiercely into the middle distance the way actors tended to do when they played soldiers.  Blame it on too many late nights spent watching TV while waiting for Heero to come back from wherever he fucked off to when he disappeared.  But then the familiar face shifted just a bit, and the olive green togs morphed into a blue uniform Duo had never seen before.  What was that thing on his hips?  Was that a butt skirt?  Suspiciously he turned to Edward, whose face was starting to turn beet red.

“Friend of yours?” Duo asked.

“Not like that!”

Now the image transmogrified again, same uniform but with more flair on the chest.  More chest, for that matter.  More everything.  Humina humina.  The mystery man winked like a big ol’ flirt.  Edward cringed.

_:You are in a feedback loop, dearest.:_   Ilyn, and not a moment too soon.

_:How do I shut it off?:_

_:First you need to take control of the image.  Think of something more familiar.:_

Tall Dark and Sexy transformed into a more compact form of dark and sexy, the hair lightening, skin tone darkening, and midnight eyes subtly changing to a shade of Prussian blue.  The memory of Heero Yuy glared ferociously at anyone still viewing this weird frequency.

_:Now what?:_

_:Now think of something that calms you.  Don’t worry about anyone watching.  Just fix your mind on an image that soothes.:_

Space as viewed from a port hole aboard Peacemillion.  Stars abounding in the inky black, and the moon so close you could count the craters.  He’d thought for just a second about envisioning the cockpit of his buddy, but while that was a good memory in many respects, it wasn’t soothing.  This memory represented a moment when all of the pilots had been more or less in harmony, at least as much as they ever were.  A rest before another storm, but the storm could wait.  For now, just look at the stars.

_:That’s… that’s good Duo, keep that image fixed in your mind.  Mageric is um, dealing with Edward’s side of the problem.  It would appear he has a rather more versatile Gift of Mindtouch than I previously suspected.:_

There was an unintelligible rejoinder from Mageric’s corner of their mental confab that felt like ‘toldja so.’  Duo was fascinated that he could still sort of hear him, even though his mind-voice sounded like Charlie Brown’s dad, and wondered if he could experience the same with other Herald’s Companions while Mindspeaking.

“Who is Charlie Brown?”

Right.  They still had an audience.  Like it had just been waiting to spring forth from his subconscious like Athena from Zeus’s forehead, Schroeder’s piano music from Peanuts filled the room.

“Who be playing the spinet?”

“Who cares, let’s be merry!”

Suddenly there were drunk people reveling it up to piano jazz in the clear space before the hearth.

_:Oh dear.:_

_:What?:_

_:Well, now we’re going to need to find a minstrel or bard to take over from you, else the crowd may riot.:_

Good grief.

 

#

 

When at long last they were able to retreat to their room for the night, Duo barely registered the décor smothered in cabbage roses.  He made straight for the half-tester bed and flumped across it face-down.  Across the room he heard Edward lighting a fire in the grate and closing the screen, and then his shuffling steps approaching the bed.

“Sorry about, you know, earlier.”  Shuffle, fidget.  “You want first crack at the chamber pot?”

Duo lifted his head off the crochet coverlet.  “Chamber what?”

 

#

 

Breakfast was waffles with pear butter and fried bread with mushrooms, with plenty of hot tea and something called chava that Duo was drinking with a thirst that would put Gluttony to shame.  If he didn’t slow down he might have to go visit the chamber pot again.  Ed hid his snickers behind a waffle, remembering Duo’s reaction the night before. At least this inn supplied a cupboard for it; plenty of places in the Amestrian countryside where he and Al had stayed didn’t even have that.  Al used to claim he was glad that he didn’t have nostrils to be offended by those lidless pots stowed under the bed.

Ed leaned on an elbow and chewed thoughtfully, wondering if there was any way he could find out how Al was doing.  Truth never said staying out of contact was part of the deal.  He was in another world (on another planet, that astounding vision from Duo proved the likelihood of that) but there was magic here.  Maybe there was a way to communicate with Al.

“Elbows off the table trainee, were you raised in a barn?”  Bera approached the table with a smile on her face and Wolff at her back.  Wolff was still yawning and scrubbing a hand through his hair in lieu of using a brush.

Ed raised an eyebrow at Bera, but did as she asked.  He had known many terrifying women in his short life, so he knew one when he was looking at her, even if she was trying to appear harmless.  Funny how she’d clocked him for elbows on the table but she hadn’t gotten onto him for eating the waffles like toast.  Winry would’ve called him sloppy and thrown a fork at him by now.

Bera’s lip twitched as she sat down with them.  “Breakfast agreeing with you, then?”

“Please tell me they’ve got this chava at Collegium,” Duo piped up.  He looked to be on his fourth cup.

“Aye, and kav too, least they did last time we sojourned in Haven.”

The serving maid came back around and plopped plates of food and cups for tea and chava before the two Heralds in white.  Wolff perked up and took fork and knife to his food with enthusiasm.

“Say, would you happen to have any advice for us on the road to Haven?”  It occurred to Ed that he was sitting across from two people who knew exactly what they were in for in terms of the road conditions and the upcoming training as well.

“Listen to your Companions,” said Wolff after a healthy slug of tea.  “Best advice I can give you.”

“He’s right,” Bera nodded.  “Oh, and also, don’t lollygag outside the wall gawking at the manors and whatnot.  Someone might try to cut your purse.  Just go straight to Companion’s Field and report in.”

“Heed the Weaponsmaster,” Wolff added.  “That class will help your odds of survival more than any other.”

“Don’t indulge in the brothels while you’re in your Grays,” Bera said.  “I know you’re young and they’ve beautiful men and women for hire, but you can’t be carousing outside the wall during your training, and anyway there are plenty of people to sleep with in the dormitories as long as you’re discreet.”

Ed and Duo’s heads turned back and forth between the two Heralds like spectators at a State Alchemist’s Assessment.

“Don’t let the chowderheads in blue get the better of you.  Some of ‘em are alright, but other ones’ll try to rile you, but don’t give them the satisfaction.  You’ve just as much a right to an education at Collegium as them spoiled brats.”

“Oh, they’re not all bad Wolff.”

“I didn’t say they were all bad.  Just some.”

“While we’re on the subject of fellow trainees though, don’t join the betting pools with the trainees in the rust-colored uniforms.  I don’t know how they do it, but those Bardic trainees win every blessed pool.”

By the time they hit the road again with vouchers and meal packets, and good luck wishes from the Heralds, Ed’s mind was swimming with information.  He wished he’d thought to ask for a writing implement to take notes. 

_:Not to worry,_ _Chosen_ _.  There will be merchants selling such things at the next town.  If we make good time we could be there tonight.  I’m sure Ilyn and Duo won’t mind a brief detour to collect a few necessaries before continuing on from there.:_

Once he had pen and paper the first thing Ed would write would be a long letter to Al.  Even if he never got to send it, he wanted to get the words out before he forgot the tenor of Al’s voice.  Maybe by some miracle Al would know his brother was thinking of him.  Their souls had been connected, after all.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to go ahead and finish this chapter and get it posted before I disappear to edit and start posting my other fic. I'll be back to work on this one, though. This has been my fun side project to goof off with, but I'm getting invested now.


	6. Procurement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duo and Edward acquire a few things of value, not all of them tangible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for all the kudos and comments! I finally finished the other fic and am midway through posting it, but Saj te Gyuhyall's comment goosed me into going ahead and posting a new chapter here. 
> 
> You are correct, Mageric is Mags. ;) I couldn't resist using known Heralds for all the Companions. All of them but Mags are more obscure ones so far. Ed always seems to do best with mentors who have a strong bullshit'o'meter and aren't afraid to use it, and Mags definitely has those traits. Duo, on the other hand, seems to do best with mentors who have a strong enough sense of humor to let his sillier antics just roll off their backs while still being able to express concern. I borrowed Ilyn from a short story where she exhibits those qualities with a group of Trainees. ;) The random characters they meet are OCs, but I tried to use names and types that show up frequently in the Velgarth novels. They'll definitely meet more known characters once they're in Haven. You're also right that they both have significant knowledge that is not known to the locals, and they are going to find themselves with some ethical dilemmas about how much to share. The thing is, though, they are both there in the first place because of their knowledge and experience. Once they start to realize why they were chosen, it'll be a PTSD party all around. Placing them is going to fun for me to write once I finish posting the other fic. I have some stuff in mind for both of them. I think Edward will find out pretty quickly about node magic bleaching his hair. I haven't decided yet if he's ever going to need to draw severely enough on a node to shift his eye color.

 

They made good time and spent the night in the attic bedroom of a stone boarding house covered in ivy.  The town Mageric spoke of had barely outgrown being a village in Ed’s estimation, but they had a large enough population to have attracted a traveling faire, and some of the faire’s merchants still had their wagons open for business out on the commons.  

Ed spent the morning before breakfast going through his meager belongings for anything he might have to barter with.  He had his cloak and pocket watch, neither of which he was ready to part with yet.  Then there was his Amestrian clothing which Mageric had told him repeatedly he shouldn’t hand over to strangers.  Ed didn’t think his thick leather belt looked different enough from what the locals were wearing to raise any alarms though, so he took that out as a possible bartering item.  He also found a small handful of cenz in one of his leather pants pockets.  The money would be useless here, but the metal it was made out of was probably worth something.

Duo also sorted his belongings once Ed explained what he was doing.  He pulled a pendant out of his shirt front, his hand hiding the shape of it, and stared at it frowning for a few seconds before placing it back inside his shirt.  Then he pulled lock picks out of the base of his braid, what in the name of science?  They’d bathed in the same room several times, so Ed must have had his eyes averted studiously trying to avoid looking at his goods whenever he’d taken those lock picks out before.  Duo seemed to think about it for a second before shaking his head and hiding the lock picks back in the braid.  Finally he located a brass compass in a pocket of the coveralls he’d been wearing when they first met, and this seemed to please him as he moved it to a pocket of his tunic before following Ed down the spiral staircase to breakfast.

After a breakfast of brown bread slathered in herb butter consumed at a communal table, Ed and Duo walked down a cobblestone alley to the town square to see what useful items they could find.

“Would you like to know the hour of your death?”  A wizened face peered from the folds of a hooded cloak as the speaker emerged from behind red velvet drapes on the back of her wagon.  A nearby songbird twittering out its morning warble took the doom out of the atmosphere she was going for.  “I can see it in your future!”

“Death comes for us all babe,” Duo said, not even looking over.

_Unless you’re a homunculus_. 

Now Duo looked over, at Ed. Did he think that too loud?

“What’s a homunculus?”

“Why’d you call an old woman a baby?”

“Why you gotta answer a question with a question?”

“I don’t know, why do you?”

Duo narrowed his pretty eyes.  “Alright wise guy.  I’m gonna be over here looking at this stuff.”  He jerked a thumb at a wagon with mermaids painted on the sides.  “You go find what you need to find and we’ll meet back here in twenty minutes.”

“Fine by me.”  Ed didn’t want to have to explain homunculi anytime soon. Or ever, really.

Ed found what he was looking for at a green-painted wagon selling functional cherishables, with a proprietor who was in the process of packing up when he approached.  Trenor, a cranky artisan who reminded Ed strongly of shopkeepers he’d dealt with before on his travels, was ready to hit the road but willing to barter if Ed had something interesting for him.  He was definitely interested in the cenz, Ed could tell as soon as he showed them to him, but he demanded the belt too because he was a hard-driving son of a bitch.  Ed traded for two wood-handled nib pens, a small bottle of ink, and, treasure of treasures, a leather wrap journal with a thin sheaf of parchment bundled inside of it.  He walked out of the deal feeling like Trenor might have somehow gotten the better of him.  He really needed to work on his haggling skills.

Duo was already waiting when Ed returned to the square, lolling across a wrought iron bench as if it were a chaise longue.  Ed figured he either didn’t find anything of interest or he paid too much for whatever he did find.  Duo kept his peace as they returned to the boarding house and collected their chits and their lunch packets of bread and cheese. They tacked up the Companions and took their leave, and were several leagues down the road when Duo finally broke his uncharacteristic silence.

“What’s a homunculus?”

 

#

 

_“You sure you want to part with that, laddie?  Your compass’ll be a sight more useful on land.”_   The owner/operator of the mermaid wagon had been stone mystified as to why Duo would want to trade a perfectly working compass for an old spyglass of tarnished brass in a cracked leather case.  He couldn’t very well explain to the guy that he wanted a closer look at the stars because it made him feel less like an alien, so he’d just shrugged and given a wistful excuse about trying to see the same stars his friends back home could see.  It was just true enough not to be a lie.  _“Well all right then, far be it from me to turn down a trade in me own favor.”_

Deal struck, Duo had then indulged himself in a long reverie of wondering what his friends were doing back home, compartmentalizing his attention between his thoughts and the activities required of continuing their journey with an ease born of long practice traveling alone in his Gundam. 

Quatre would probably organize a memorial of some sort.  Duo used to joke with him about wanting a big party when he checked out, like the kind Quatre’s Maguanacs had thrown when they’d first met.  Hopefully that was the kind of send-off he was getting, a rowdy wake full of uproarious Sweepers.  Maybe Howard and Hilde would pour one out for him.  Duo wondered if his gift was strong enough to cross the intervening distance to reach Quatre’s space heart and thank him for being such a good friend.

_:I don’t know dearheart, but it may make you feel better to try.  We can work on a meditation tonight when we reach the Waystation.:_

Ilyn had been letting him have his mope, for which he was grateful.  _:Making contact won’t be breaking any rules?:_   If Quatre knew he was alive, he’d probably dedicate a branch of Winner Corp toward trying to find him.  Duo didn’t think there was any chance the ESUN had a ship capable of coming to wherever in the universe he currently was, but you never knew what secret tech Lady Une was keeping a lid on.

_:He will probably think it was just a comforting dream.:_

That was a reasonable assumption.  Death didn’t miss a trick and if there was one thing Duo was sure of it was that he had actually died.  Quatre would have no reason to believe a midnight visit from him was anything but a dream because people didn’t just waltz back from real death.  Duo’s gaze slid sideways to land on the blond riding tensely beside him.  Most people didn’t waltz back from real death.

“What’s a homunculus?”

Edward grunted in clear frustration. “Why do you want to know?”

“Because nobody comes back from death, but I kind of did?  And apparently they do too?  Am I a homunculus?”

Edward tossed him an incredulous stare.  “The simple fact that you asked is proof that you’re not.  Even when they don’t remember anything else, homunculi always know that they didn’t come about in a natural way.”

“Well, I don’t know where I came from.”

Edward sent him another quizzical look.  “What do you mean?  You came from your parents, right?”

“I suppose.”  Duo frowned at the dirt road ahead of them.  “I don’t remember any, though.  First thing I remember is running in a street gang with a bunch of other kids.  We were war orphans.  Or at least, that’s what the street vendors always called us when they were chasing us away from their carts.  For all I know, I could have been the bastard child of some fancypants.  Or a homunculus.”

“You’re not a homunculus.”

“You seem awful sure about that.”

“That’s because I am sure.”  Edward’s tense expression had turned thoughtful.  “You’re worrying about it.  A homunculus would never do that.”

“Why don’t you run down the traits of a homunculus and we’ll see if I’m a match?”

Edward’s expressive face was the very picture of ‘how dumb do you think I are?’ but he said, “Okay.  Homunculi have purple eyes and tend to wear a lot of black.”

“Dude, that’s me!”  Duo felt a cold thrill of apprehension at the thought of it.  He could finally find out where he’d come from, but then that might turn out to be someplace messed up.  Heero had come from unusual origins and he did not seem to be okay with it.

“Wait a minute, I’m not done,” Edward said crossly.  “Homunculi have an ouroboros tattoo somewhere on their bodies.  You have one of those?”

“No.”  He’d had a winged snake tattoo from his time with Solo’s gang on his left shoulder blade, but it had not been eating its own tail.  Dr. G had insisted on its removal.  No visible identifying marks were permitted for stealth ops.  “You already suspected that to be the case, though.  How come?”

“Because homunculi also completely lack humility, which is a quality you seem to have plenty of even though you keep trying to hide it.”

Duo drooped in the saddle. “Oh.”

“You sound disappointed.”  Edward’s golden eyes were curious, not judging.  “You should be glad.”

“I was just kind of hoping to get a clue as to where I came from, you know?”  Duo scratched his shoulder.  “Even if it was someplace weird and gnarly.  I guess I’ve just always wanted to know why my parents left me.”

“Duo.”  Edward licked his lips and winced.  “Don’t take this the wrong way, but… if you were a homunculus, you wouldn’t have any parents.”

“But then at least I’d know!”  Duo threw his arms out and almost whacked Ed on the shoulder.  Mageric whickered warningly.  “Sorry.”

“My dad left my family to go save the world,” Edward said, staring forward with a pinched look to his brow.  “Maybe your parents had good intentions when they left.”

“Maybe.”  Duo understood what Edward was trying to do, in his scowly growly way.  He was trying to reframe the narrative as a comfort to his traveling companion.  If Duo really was a war orphan then he imagined that his parents must have been convinced that they were running off to save the colonies.  “It still sucks though, don’t it?”

That startled a laugh out of Edward.  “Yeah, it sucks balls.”

_:The both of you will benefit fantastically from coursework in the courtly graces, honestly.:_

The tone of Ilyn’s mind voice sounded so much like Sally Po that Duo laughed until his chest hurt.  The rest of the trip went much as previous days had gone, except that there seemed to be a new understanding between Duo and Edward, a friendlier vibe and a silent agreement that shocking their Companions’ more delicate sensibilities was fun (although Duo was not convinced that Mageric was really shocked at all).

They zoomed past the distant candlelight and chimney smoke of a village at the Companions’ preternaturally fast ambling gait as the light on the horizon began to turn golden.

_:We’re not stopping here for the night?:_   Duo had come to appreciate feather beds and hearth-cooked meals.

_:No, dearheart.  We can make it to the next Waystation before the moon is high, and from there it’s less than a day’s travel to Haven.  I believe your intake into Collegium will go more smoothly if we can get you settled into your dormitory room before you begin your assessments, and Mageric is in agreement with_ _me._ _:_

As a teenage strike and run operative Duo was well-accustomed to disorienting days followed by dazed attempts to sleep in strange places, but as a teenage war veteran he’d had a bellyful of that so he deferred to Ilyn’s wisdom on the matter.

The unpaved road widened and smoothed out, becoming less of a green road and showing more signs of regular maintenance.  When they made it to the Waystation, it was larger than the previous ones they'd stayed in, with an attached stable block, a rainwater tank and an outhouse.  Inside there was a pantry cupboard well-stocked with groats, dried venison, hardtack and honey, and a double-decker box-bed with a storage bench full of linens. When Duo and Edward removed the blankets from the herb-lined storage bench, they bore the soft lack of creases of blankets which had been frequently (and recently) used.  This close to the capitol city it was probably luck of the draw that they were the only ones using the Waystation on this particular night.

Duo bid goodnight to Edward, who had taken up a hunched position in front of the fireplace to write in his new notebook while chewing dried venison with no hands.  He climbed into the top bunk with two of the requisitioned blankets.

_:Okay Ilyn, I’m ready.:_

_:Go ahead and close the sliding panel now.:_

Duo closed the panel, which had a grate that let a little of the flickering firelight in.  It was a good thing he wasn’t claustrophobic.  _:Done.  What do I do next?:_

_:Close your eyes.  Relax all of your muscles, one by one.  Breathe slowly and deeply… count the breaths…:_

Ilyn guided Duo through a meditation that brought each part of his body into focus and released the tension therein until he felt like he was floating, barely tethered to his earthly frame.

_:You’re doing very well, Duo, but we don’t aim to walk with the Star-Eyed tonight.  Just let yourself exist in the here and now as you think of your friend.  What he might be doing.  How he might be feeling.  What he might be thinking.:_

Duo thought of Quatre Raberba Winner, scion of the largest and most powerful corporate entity in the colonies, gentleman whose huge heart had helped save the entire Earth Sphere.  Savvy businessman.  Gundam Pilot.  Friend.  His angelic face came into focus.  The scene revolved to show him looking out over a revel with a picture of Duo smiling down from the opposite wall.  He wasn’t really surprised that Quatre was watching instead of reveling with the crowd.  He had never liked the taste of alcohol.  The Sweepers were indeed pouring one out for him and toasting his memory, and so were many Preventers Duo had worked with.  There was one face missing, though.

_“Oh, Duo.”_   Quatre’s soft voice was thick with sorrow.  _“He would be here if he could.”_

_“It’s okay my friend.  I am just so grateful to have met you and proud to have known you.  I’m…”_    What could he even say?  _I’m in a better place?_   That was so cliché.  Quatre would never buy that coming from him.

_“Duo?”_   There was an image forming at the forefront of Quatre’s mind.  Something he had seen recently.  It had the digital noise of a recorded image, and the feeling coming from Quatre was that he had not been supposed to see it.  _If Lady Une thinks she could keep anything regarding the other pilots from me, she’s got another think coming_.  Quatre was still quietly fuming over this image of Heero’s sleeping face behind the frosted window of a cryogenic chamber.  He had not been given clearance to obtain this image, but Allah help anyone who stood between Quatre and anyone he called friend.

_“Don’t wait for me,” Heero had said.  That asshole went and intentionally got himself frozen like a Popsicle and didn’t even tell Duo the truth about it?_

“Son of a bitch!”  Duo jackknifed straight up in the bed, hitting his head on the low ceiling.  “Ow!”

There was a clatter from outside the box-bed.  The grate slid open and Edward’s worried face appeared.

“Are you okay?”

_:_ _Chosen_ _!  Are you alright?:_   Mageric’s wah-wah voice began a counterpoint to Ilyn’s worried mindvoice.  _:Yes I suppose we should have waited but-  Yes I know you’re more of an expert on this but-  Duo, say something please!:_

“I’m fine,” Duo hastily tried to reassure them.  “Just mad.”

_:Oh dearheart.  I had hoped talking to your friend would ease your mind.:_

“Talking to Quatre helped me, rest easy on that.”  Duo smiled bitterly.  “Quatre’s the best.  I’m mad because I just found out my ill-advised ex-boyfriend, great love of my life, decided to become a human ‘break glass in case of emergency’ tool.”

“Damn, that's a real pisser.”  Edward held up a little metal flask.  “Want a tipple?”

“What is that?”  Duo took the flask, opened the stopper and took a sniff.  Woo!  That stuff had enough ethanol to start a car!

“I think its applejack.”  Edward was grinning with a healthy flush to his cheeks.  “A Herald left it behind the water tank with a note to help ourselves.”

“Have you been drinking it already?”

_:Yes he has.:  Wah-wah-wah.  :I know they’re old enough, but they might be meeting the Dean tomorrow.:  Wah-wah.  :Fine, but if they wind up having to take their assessments while hung over I’m laying the blame at your hooves.:_

“Come on up here and share your hooch.”  Duo helped wrangle Edward into the top bunk with him.  They lay side by side in the cramped space passing the flask between them, telling stupid stories and laughing at the antics of their past selves until they finally fell asleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still posting another fic, but I will come back around to this.


	7. Physiology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haven, Healers and Heralds, oh my.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments and kudos!

 

When morning broke they were rousted out of bed by a Herald on his way back to Haven.  His Companion had been mind-chatting theirs from the road, causing him to decide to stop and greet the newly Chosen trainees.  When he’d found them both in the top bunk “drunk as boiled owls” he’d howled with laughter, then continued to laugh out of a mouth full of strong teeth as he badgered them through tacking up and called them more old-timey names than Ed could keep track of. 

He thought he might still be a little drunk.

_:You’ll be sober in plenty of time to get your dorm assignment and be seen by a Healer, and Herald Adan will be able to dine out on this story for weeks.:_

_:Ugh, why didn’t you stop me?:_

_:You needed to get a few things out of your system.:_

Ed flashed on a memory of Havoc letting him smoke cigarettes, _“as many as you like, kid.”_    When he’d confronted the man later after a marathon puking session, he’d been given a similar excuse.

“Man of my life,” Duo moaned from the saddle next to him.  “Love of my dreams.”  He was probably still drunk too.

“What of you, young rascal?”  Herald Adan rode up on Ed’s other side and damn if that jackass wasn’t still laughing.  “Drowning your sorrows for a lover left behind as well?”

“Nah.”  It had occurred to Ed while listening to Duo’s stories about Hero (that can’t be his real name) the previous evening that Colonel Bastard might have done him a supreme kindness by actively discouraging any hero worship from his young protégée.  “I just miss my brother.”

“You’ll have many brothers in the Heraldic Circle.”  Herald Adan finally stopped laughing to regard him with sympathy.  “Sisters too.”

“Yeah.”  They wouldn’t be Al and Winry, though. 

Ed had written his first letter to Al before he’d found the flask of applejack and gotten distracted.  Now that he knew it was possible to get a message home, he’d begun turning over in his mind how he might accomplish it.  He didn’t know if he would be able to do it himself or if he’d need to ask Duo for help, and he was still worried he might wind up losing a body part to the attempt.  Duo had been a lot more forthcoming drunk than sober, and Ed didn’t get the impression that he had an antagonistic history with his Shinigami like Ed had with Truth.

_:I wouldn’t try it with mind magic again_ _Chosen_ _, at least not until Duo gets a better handle on his Gift.  Mayhap the Mage Gift will provide a solution; if you apply yourself to your studies you may find it.:_

Ed felt encouraged by Mageric’s words.  He kicked ass at applying himself to study.

The nearer they got to Haven, the wider and better-kept the road became, graded with a crown to encourage runoff in inclement weather.  The more crowded the road became as well, as the party of three on Companions’ back passed people in carts and afoot nearly hourly, and saw some coming from the other direction in caravans.  They ate on the move, making sandwiches out of leftover cheese from Ed and Duo’s packs and brown bread rolls from Adan’s. 

They rode past bucolic farmland with cultivated fields and the distant red sides of barns reminding Ed so strongly of Risembool that his chest hurt. 

It must have shown on his face because Adan tapped him on the shoulder with his canteen.  “Have some more water,” he said.  “It’ll help you with the bottle-ache.  Don’t fret, I’ve plenty.”

Ed’s hangover wasn’t actually bothering him much – he’d had worse physical pain in his life – but he accepted the offer in the spirit in which it was made.  Adan made the same offer to Duo.  They both had what were probably standard issue canteens in their own packs, but Adan’s was a personal item lined with copper and insulated with a soaked rag, which lent the water a cleaner, cooler taste. 

Ed suddenly got a mental image of a bag with a straw poking out of it, attached to the hump of a dromedary.  It was so specific yet so random that he knew it hadn’t come from his own subconscious.  He glanced side to side at each of his traveling companions.  Adan offered a friendly smile.  Duo seemed lost to his thoughts.

_:Artifacts from Duo’s world are so strangely designed:_   Mageric said, confirming Ed’s suspicions.

_:Do you think he knows he’s sharing this stuff?:_   Why wasn’t Adan reacting to this?

_:He has no idea.  And he’s not sharing with everybody.  You have an unusual Gift in sufficient measure to pick up on the more emotionally dynamic thoughts of others with similar Gifts, and I believe your past training is influencing you to interpret those thoughts as symbolic imagery.:_   Mageric paused.  _:For the most part.:_

Ed didn’t have to guess to know what Mageric was hinting at.  _:It was a catchy song!:_

_:Odd choice of romantic hero for a love song though.  A drover trying to get home to his wife?  I like the originality but you’re both lucky those people were too drunk to pay attention to the lyrics.:_

_:I guess.:_   Love songs with working class heroes were common in Amestris, especially in the bars where he’d frequently had to run down suspects and other persons of interest to his investigations.  He honestly didn’t see what the big deal was.  Wouldn’t most people enjoy hearing romanticized stories about their lives to build themselves up when they were trying to wind down after a longsuffering day?

_:That’s an interesting perspective.:_   Mageric sounded thoughtful.  _:The common assumption is that most people would rather live vicariously as someone completely different from themselves, especially if that someone is important and does exciting things.  You should request to take an elective from Bardic Collegium.:_

Ed snorted.  _:You think I need some sophistication?:_  

He got a mental snort in return, and the tic of irritation he’d felt before from Mageric when he thought Ed was being unnecessarily down on himself.

_:I think they could learn something from you, hardhead.:_

“Hark, young Trainees!”  Adan had pulled slightly ahead and crested the top of a hill.  “Come feast your eyes upon the city you’ll be calling home ‘til you ride your internship circuit.”

The slope of the hill provided a decent view of the city skyline in the late afternoon light.  Ed spotted the ramparts of several city walls between multi-storey buildings.  A colorful tent city appeared to be flourishing outside the outermost wall.  It kind of reminded him of East City, or what East City might have looked like without an electrical power grid.  Or any sort of grid, really.  The buildings were so densely packed together that it was hard to tell how the streets were laid out, but it didn’t look like standard city blocks.  Were those people running on the rooftops?

_:Yes.:_   Mageric had been monitoring his reaction and seemed to be very amused by it.  _:Those are people running on the rooftops.:_

Ed grinned.  _:That means I won’t get any crap for doing that too, right?:_

_:As long as you don’t bother the messengers on their errands I don’t see why you would.:_

Hells yeah!

“How am I supposed to hide on the roof when there are other people already up there who’ll see me?”  Duo had shaken off his lethargy and was now pouting.

“Why would you need to hide on the roof?”  Adan asked.

Duo looked at Ed and Adan and then looked off to the side.  “No reason.”

Ed thought there was a reason and he thought it might have something to do with the lock picks hidden in the guy’s braid.

The group rode down the hill onto the cobblestone road into the city where they were almost immediately engulfed in noise.  People were conducting their business everywhere, including right in the street, which seemed to wind in a curve instead of a straight line like the streets in Liore.  None of the citizenry paid much mind to the three Companions dancing agilely past them, their hoof beats chiming off the road’s surface like bells.  

They came upon the first wall rising well above their heads in weathered bricks, and followed it in a continuing curve until they reached a gate of such depth as to resemble a short tunnel, revealing that the wall was of considerable thickness.  Guards in bright blue uniforms had taken up defensive positions in front of and atop the wall’s gate.  They waved the three Companions and their charges through without comment.

Even if the successive walls turned out to be as large and well-guarded as the first, it still wasn’t as ostentatious as the pomp of Central Command, looking out over the Central City from above like a raptor’s aerie and still walled off for no good reason.  Ed found the messy humanity to be an encouraging sign.  Security was important, but when leadership wanted to live too far removed from the people they were leading, nothing good could come of it.

The group emerged from the gate into what looked like a mercantile district.  Shops, tenements, inns and taverns were built so close together on narrow streets that the awnings created a canopy in some spots.  People and animals crossed those winding streets with no regard for anything approaching a notion of traffic control.  Daredevil messenger boys ran recklessly over the rooftops, leaping directly over their heads on multiple occasions before the travelers reached the second wall.

This wall’s arched gate was flanked by towers and manned by more members of the Guard.  Embrasures were visible at intervals above and alongside the gate, with enough flashes of blue to prove that there were archers on duty.  The whole effect might have been more intimidating if not for the shutters visible on a section of the wall farther down, showing that there were people living inside part of this one.  The gatehouse might have originally been used to garrison the city’s Guard unit, maybe back when this wall was first built, but the lady singing and flapping dusty rugs out of one of the windows strongly suggested that this wasn’t the case anymore.  The guards at the gate traded greetings that sounded like ‘Hey La’ with Adan and once again the small group was permitted through without incident.

This time when they passed through the shade of the gate into fading sunlight, they were in a residential district.  There were businesses here too, but they did not dominate the cityscape as they did on the other side of the wall.  Timber-framed houses with potager gardens lined the widening ring road alongside upscale shops such as millineries and confectioneries.  The people (noticeably better dressed) continued to cross the street by whatever whim took their fancy, but with more space available the Companions were able to make a path through the crowd with greater ease.

Gradually, wooden houses gave way to stone.  Crenelated mansions bearing banners announcing the family coat-of-arms to any passers-by lined the streets, which were now wide enough to easily accommodate the carriages moving between them.  They looked a lot like the country manors that high-ranking Amestrian officers were given to reside in, except without the expansive grounds around them.

The last wall rose higher than the previous two, and appeared to be more rigorously maintained, the climbing plants pruned back to prevent damage and prohibit use as a makeshift ladder for scofflaws.  The small party came upon a sentry box standing beside another gate. This gate had massive double doors that were closed, with a smaller inset door, also closed, and a lone sentry standing straight and formal in fine livery of silver and midnight blue.

“State your business,” said the sentry.

“I’m Herald Adan, here with Companions Mageric and Ilyn and their newly-Chosen, Edward and Duo.”

The sentry consulted his duty log while Ed looked up at the parapets atop the wall.  He sincerely doubted that a single sentry was the only defender at this gate.  He felt the itchy sensation between his shoulder blades that meant he was being watched. 

“Carry on with your escort,” the sentry finally said, opening the smaller door.  “They’re waiting on you over to the House of Healing.”

“I thank you kindly, good sir,” replied Adan, and then he led his charges single file through the door.

Once through, they trotted past palatial gardens under the spires of a massive building adorned with flags bearing a crest featuring a winged silver horse with broken chains, forcené on a field of blue. Then they cantered past a pasture from which curious Companions watched their progress as they rounded another large structure with people in gray and pale blue milling about, and yet another with people in rust red, until finally they walked to a stop before an L-shaped building discharging people in two different shades of green.

One of these, an older lady in emerald green, approached them as they dismounted from the Companions.

“Welcome to Haven,” she said, her smile and manner as soothing as the color of her robes.  “I’m Healer Thesa. I’m told we have two new Herald Trainees who might be suffering from backlash?”

“Aye, Healer,” Adan confirmed.  “This one’s puny and t’other one’s addled.”

“WHO ARE YOU CALLIN’ A LITTLE BITTY RAISIN WITH SHRUNKEN LIMBS?!”

_:Chosen, he did not say that!:_

 

#

 

“Sorry about that,” Duo said to Healer Thesa as soon as they were alone in what he guessed must be her office.  “He’s got a thing about people bringing up his height.  You might want to let that get around.”  He was doing Edward a favor by encouraging that bit of intelligence to precede him.  The fewer people who accidentally ignited his temper by insinuating that he was vertically challenged, the less chance of him punching his clock before his time by having an aneurysm.

“I’m not normally in favor of gossip, but for this I may make an exception,” Thesa said dryly as she waved him to sit in one of two wooden chairs in front of a window facing the post meridiem sun.  “Let’s have a look at you.  Hold this.”  He sat and she placed a large hunk of chalcedony in his hands.

“Should I look into it?”  He stared down into its glittery depths.

“If you like.”  Then she pulled up a chair to face him, placed her hands over his on the rock, and closed her eyes.  Almost immediately, Duo felt a gentle pulling sensation, kind of like being in an elevator.

“Forced open your Gift I see,” she murmured.  “Your Companion has already handled that very well, but I’ll send some tea with you that will strengthen your aura just in case.  Got a mild case of the zings, Havens bless the recreational enthusiasm of Heralds.  The tea should help with that too.  You’re a healthy young man otherwise.  Remarkably healthy, in truth.  What’s this?”

“What’s what?”  Duo wished he could see whatever was on the backs of her eyelids.  All he saw was a sparkly blue rock.

“Someone has tampered with your body’s natural defenses.”

“Oh.”  It was probably from Dr. G’s medical regimen, the one he’d pushed on Duo as _“standard procedure m’boy”_ once he’d gleaned that Duo was thinking about stealing the Gundam.  “Yeah, he was trying to make me stronger.”

“He succeeded,” Thesa tsked.

“That’s a problem?”

“It was a terrible risk to take with a small child.”

“I wasn’t that small.”  Was this how Edward felt when people called him short?

“Not many with your Gift have it in such strength as to initiate a Final Strike,” she went on, “but you do.  Except that now you might survive it if you try.  That’s a terrible risk.”

She didn’t need to say anymore to give Duo the gist.  He remembered all the times the stupid self-destruct had malfunctioned in his Buddy.

“Story of my life, Healer.”

 

#

 

“Firesong would be better suited to solving this particular problem.”

A tall, handsome fellow with hair as long as Ed’s own leaned over him, scowling at his wasted limbs as if they had personally offended him in some way.  If this guy could do what the Healer who had requested his aid thought he could do, perhaps they had.

“Firesong is not here,” Healer Patris reminded him, not for the first time.

The Healers had quickly figured out that Ed’s affliction was not the sort of backlash they were accustomed to dealing with, which led to him being examined by a mindhealer named Patris, who had decided to consult an adept.  After deliberating on that, there had been quite a bit of dithering once it was ascertained that the only adept near to hand with any healing training was this Darkwind who was married to a princess but who wasn’t a prince?  Except he was the son of a Clan Elder, so maybe he was a prince?  Following far too much diplomatic dancing around (to Ed’s mind) Darkwind arrived on the scene and now here they were.

Darkwind’s frown twitched into an involuntary smile, so he probably also had some sort of mind Gift and Ed was probably Projecting.

_:He does, and you are:_   was Mageric’s quick rejoinder.

“Let’s be at this, then,” said Darkwind, and that was all the warning Ed got before he felt a _presence_ moving around the boundaries of his consciousness. 

It reminded him so strongly and suddenly of Pride attempting to take over his body that he flung energy at the presence without thinking.  Darkwind grunted; the presence drew back but did not withdraw completely.  Patris placed a hand on each of their shoulders and what could only be described as a soothing emanation flooded Ed’s mind.

“My apologies,” Darkwind said.  “I was unaware that a magical incursion had been attempted on you before.  This explains much.  Be steady, I will not harm you.”

The presence returned, more cautiously this time, probing the edges of Ed’s awareness.  Now that he knew it was just Darkwind trying to assess his situation, Ed gritted his teeth and allowed him to continue.  Patris remained beside them, attempting to send waves of comfort even though it must have been like trying to put out a kitchen fire with a cup of tea.  After many uncomfortable minutes, Darkwind stepped back, both physically and metaphorically.

“Your physical ailment is definitely a result of some sort of magical interference,” he said as he gingerly sat himself down on one of the cushions Patris had strewn about the room in case one or the both of them fell over during this examination.  “Of what sort, I know not.  I’ve never seen its like before.  What I do know is that it is no longer suppressing the growth of those limbs.  You will be able to restore them to full health matching the rest of you, but you’ll have to do it by non-magical means.”

“In that case, I believe one of our herbalists would best be able to come up with a treatment plan for you, Edward,” said Patris.

Duo was already waiting for tea when they arrived at the apothecary, so Darkwind took his leave and Patris waited only long enough to consult with the herbalist before leaving as well.  By the time the elderly herbalist had filled Ed’s prescription for tinctures and ointments there was a young man in grays waiting with them, a gangly and gregarious fellow called Rojek.  Just when Ed thought he’d narrowly escaped any more associative memories of Pitt Renbak, too.  Rojek’s eyes and hair were lighter, but the freckles and overall bone structure were remarkably similar, as was the unswerving earnestness.

“Havens bless!” he’d said when he caught sight of them.  “Here I thought I’d be leading younglings by the hand but I reckon you’re as old as I am!”

Rojek was given the assignment of being their mentor while they were learning the ropes at Collegium.  He reassured them that their Companions were being taken care of as he walked them across a courtyard over to a common room off the Herald’s Wing of the palace.

“Here’s where we get three hot meals a day and a chance to blather where we won’t catch trouble for being a bunch of jackdaws.” 

The common room reminded Ed of the cafeteria at Central HQ.  There were buffet tables manned by Trainees on KP duty, stations to pick up trays and silverware, and people in gray and white uniforms chattering loudly all over the place.  Some of the people in gray shouted out greetings to Rojek, who cheerfully shouted back that he was ‘giving the tour’ and that was the first anyone in the room seemed to have taken much notice of Ed and Duo, but it wasn’t the last.

Ed’s suspicion that they were unusual recruits was confirmed when the three sat down with stew and dumplings next to another mentor guiding newly arrived Trainees, and the other new ones were much younger than even Al.  The youngsters peppered the gray-clad mentors with questions while Ed and Duo leaned into their stew with gusto and tried to be unobtrusive about their eavesdropping.

“I’d of introduced you as yearmates,” Rojek admitted later, as he was leading them to the dormitory, “but I’ve a feeling you’ll test out of a lot of their classes tomorrow.”

Ed was shown to a small room right next door to the one that was being assigned to Duo.  It was simply furnished with a single bed and bed stand, a small desk with a chair and a bookcase, and a clothes locker.  There was a cord of wood next to a small enclosed fireplace against the far wall, and an unlit candle on the desk alongside a tin matchbox.

“You’re lucky you’re coming on now, with months to go before a cold snap,” Rojek said as he piled bed linens and nightclothes in both of their arms.  “You may not even need a fire tonight.  Make the bed as you like, just make sure it’s neat as a pin come the morn’ or the Housekeeper’ll get on you, and she’s got no sense of privacy that one.  I’ll be along to bring you to breakfast and then to see the Dean.”

Ed was sure he and Duo would have stood there in the hall blinking at one another for a while longer if Rojek hadn’t insisted that they stop gathering wool and go to bed.  Ed made up the bed with the gray sheets, plain woven but soft, and left the woolen blanket folded on the end.  He’d also been given a summer weight nightshirt.  He put it on and crawled between the sheets in the dark and felt the stillness of being very much alone for the first time in days.

_:You are not alone Chosen:_   came Mageric’s sleepy mind voice.

_:Because you’re here with me?:_

_:Yes.  But also because Duo is right on the other side of the wall and Ilyn tells me he is awake too.:_

Ed pressed a hand to the wall.  His withered hand, which could feel the cool plaster against his palm for the first time in years.  _:Won’t we get in trouble if I start knocking on the walls?:_

_:Yes.  But you don’t have to do that.  Duo is a mindspeaker, remember?:_

Oh, right!  **_:Duo.:_**

Ed immediately got a response in the form of a mental picture of himself shouting through a megaphone.  Woops!  _:Sorry.:_

What followed was a recap of the day’s events, playing out like a silent film told from Duo’s perspective.

_:Yeah it was a long day, wasn’t it?:_

Duo sent an image of him and Ed walking confidently arm-in-arm down the dormitory hall.

_:Yeah, I agree.  We should stick together.:_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Replying to a comment: yeah, the parchment was old-fashioned, but I figured Trenor was selling nostalgia as much as he was selling anything else. Duo's past has an indirect effect on his present and future in Valdemar, as seen in this chapter. I tend to wonder if Duo was an escaped medical experiment rather than an actual war orphan, due to what happened when he was running with Solo's gang and they got caught up in the epidemic on L2. I don't know if I'll go into depth on that or not, but it definitely impacts certain things about him in the story.


	8. Momentum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ed and Duo are sent to assessments, and start making some assessments of their own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments and kudos!

 

The morning bell rang when it was still dark as a Sweeper’s asshole outside.  Duo rolled over in bed.  A thin sliver of light filtered under the door from the hall, interrupted at random intervals by all the feet pattering past.  Duo’s night vision was excellent (thanks Dr. G!) so he was able to locate his borrowed clothing and make his bed without lighting the candle.  Truth be told, he had a healthy respect for white phosphorous and since he had a suspicion that’s what those matches in the tin were made with, he wanted to wait until he could examine them in full daylight before he used one.

Rojek said he was coming to collect them for breakfast and an introduction to the Dean.  Duo was pondering whether or not to wait for him in the hall when he heard a knock close to his own door followed by the kid’s muffled voice asking, “Edward?  Are you awake?”

Man, that kid called it, maybe his Gift was ForeSight.  Somehow he’d correctly pegged Edward for the one who was going to be more difficult to rouse.  Duo had already learned from experience that he was damn near impossible to get out of bed in the mornings until the promise of food was dangled under his nose.  He went into the hall, smiled hello at Rojek, and rapped on Edward’s door.

“Edward get up, it’s time to eat.”

A loud thump came from within Edward’s room before the door creaked open and a grumpy pair of golden eyes appeared in the crack.

“You can’t go to breakfast looking like that,” Rojek said amiably.  “Let’s get you put to rights before we visit the washroom.”

Rojek lit the candle in Edward’s room from one of the sconces in the hallway (convenient, Duo would have to remember that) and between the three of them they managed to get Edward dressed and his bed remade within minutes.  Then Rojek led them down the hall to a room from which steam billowed out every time another Trainee opened the door, which given the time of day was every few seconds.

“You can wash up in the sink for now, and use the privy if you need to,” Rojek said.  “You’ll have time for a proper bath later on I expect.”

The washroom had private water closets and tubs right out in the open, similar to the setup in the Guard outpost’s bathroom.  Sage-scented soap and clean towels were stacked near the door for easy access.  There was a line of sinks against the near wall, all of which had separate hot and cold taps.  The Trainees at the sinks were all putting stoppers in the drains and filling the sink to their comfort, so Duo and Edward shrugged at each other and did the same.

Afterwards, they went back to the same common room they’d been shown the day before to fill up on eggs, bacon, porridge, and bless all the saints, that stuff they were calling chava.  It tasted like chicory coffee to Duo, who gratefully drank his fill.

“You see yon Trainees refilling the food stations and picking up trays?” Rojek pointed out the Trainees wearing aprons over their grays.  “They’re going about their weekly assigned chores.  You’ll be getting some from Seshel before the day is out.”

It turned out Seshel was the very next stop on their itinerary.  She measured them both for new uniforms and boots, and told Rojek she wanted to see them again later in the day.  “I won’t have their new Grays ready until late tomorrow,” she said, “but I’m expecting to get some retired ones by tonight that might fit this pair, on account of a couple of fresh-minted Heralds setting off on their internship rides in the morning that won’t be needing theirs anymore.  Mayhap by this eve I’ll have figured out where to put these two on the duty roster as well.”

Rojek seemed rather gleeful as they took their leave from the Housekeeper.  “I do allow you may have stumped her,” he said with a big grin.  “I ain’t never seen her at a loss for what chores to assign Trainees.  I reckon she’ll have an ear to the ground to hear how your assessments go today.”

“It’s not something where everybody takes a turn scrubbing the toilets?”  Duo had been under the impression that the Heralds prized egalitarianism, and there was nothing more egalitarian than everybody getting a chance to find out what latrine duty was like.

“Oh aye, it is, but if Seshel thinks you’re apt be flat terrible at something she’ll make sure you’re partnered with somebody who is a dab hand at it and can teach you proper habits.”

That actually made sense.  There was egalitarianism, and then there was keeping a large domestic enterprise running smoothly.  Sister Helen would have probably appreciated Seshel’s practical strategy.  Her rosary was a familiar comforting weight under Duo’s tunic.  He was glad he had decided against trading it.

“Not much point going to the baths just to put dirty clothes back on after.”  Rojek led them through a common area, pointing out adjacent areas of interest as he went.  “Thataway’s where you’ll go for classes, most likely starting tomorrow.  Yonder is the Heraldic Library where you’ll spend far too many of your waking hours if you ask me.”

Edward’s eyes followed the direction towards the library like Wufei’s followed Sally Po’s figure when he thought nobody was looking.  So there _was_ something he lusted after more than food.  Edward seemed like such an id-driven guy, but he was full of surprises.

“Thisaway here is the Herald’s Wing, where Dean Teren has quarters.”

The residential wing was larger than the collegium wing, but it was hard to imagine it being large enough to contain full apartments for a sizable force.  Just how many Heralds were there protecting this country? 

How big even was this country?  Duo realized his perspective might be skewed from working for an organization responsible for a whole planet.

“All of the Heralds live here?” Duo asked. 

“The ones that are stationed here, or between circuits.”  Rojek led them up a flight of stairs.  “Some folks get stationed elsewhere, and others get family privileges to live outside the wall, but plenty come through here right regular and they have rooms.”

Rooms made more sense than apartments given the overall size of the wing.  Extrapolating from that, the Heralds alone represented roughly the same size force as the Preventers who were on permanent duty to Sanc.  When factoring in the additional manpower represented by the Guard, Valdemar might be larger than Sanc, although another factor to consider was that Preventer tech could take the place of soldiers on the ground to a certain extent.

“Herald Adan probably has a room here, then,” Edward mused, to which Rojek replied, “Oh aye, he does.”

“It’s nice they don’t make them stay in hotels,” Edward continued, and Duo wondered again what sort of military background he came from.

“It’s customary to be assigned a berth if you’re not going deep cover,” Duo said, hoping to draw him out.  No matter if he was answering to Dr. G, Howard, or even Lady Une, Duo had always been able to count on being bivouacked somewhere.  Unless, of course, he had to go to ground.

“T’would be terrible expensive to keep us in hotels, I would think,” was Rojek’s perspective on the matter.

“It’s especially expensive when you’re stuck with a guy who eats like he’s got a hole in his stomach,” Edward said enigmatically (because really, who was this guy who ate more than Edward) and then left off because they’d arrived at Dean Teren’s door and it was open.

“Heyla Dean, I’ve brought the new Trainees, Mageric’s Edward and Ilyn’s Duo.”

“I thank you Trainee Rojek.”  A smiling middle-aged gent in full whites appeared in the doorway, and there was something in the set of his features that reminded Duo of Bera, but his eyes were puppy dog brown.  “Welcome Trainees, won’t you come in and sit down?”

Rojek excused himself to attend a class while Duo and Edward were invited to sit on velvety cushioned chairs in a handsomely appointed front room.  Duo was pretty sure this was called a drawing room.  He’d been in one once when following around Princess Relena on a bodyguard detail, one of the rare times he’d been tapped for it.

“Now then, what sort of academic history have you brought to Haven with you?”  Dean Teren sat across from them with a dip pen and ledger similar to what Seshel had used.  “Either of you can start, don’t be shy.”

Thirty minutes later, a visibly frazzled Dean Teren looked up from his ledger.  “Well, I believe it is safe to say that neither of you will be requiring Practical Math, Logic or any of the Artificer’s curricula.”  He looked down at his notes and muttered, “You could probably teach some of those classes.”  He cleared his throat and looked up again.  “However, you’ll need to start with the beginners in History, Law, Geography and courses pertaining to your Gifts.  Don’t fret, you probably won’t spend too much time with the littles as I can see you’re both very intelligent and given how advanced you are in other areas, you can easily catch up to others your age with extra credit work.  I do believe your past experiences have put you both near your own age group for Negotiation, Orienteering, and Etiquette, so we’ll start you off at that level and adjust if necessary.”

That last had surprised Duo, actually.  He hadn’t realized how much proper behavior he’d picked up just hanging around bigwigs in Preventers until Dean Teren had quizzed him on it, but let’s hear it for osmosis.  Edward apparently also knew quite a bit about polite manners, he just elected to ignore what he knew most of the time.

The entire interview had been a stressful dance for all three of them.  According to Ilyn, who’d been guiding Duo like Cyrano de Bergerac the whole time, a Herald with the title of the Queen’s Own knew the truth about where they had come from and had advised that information remain need-to-know until she could convene some sort of a meeting with other higher-ups.  Dean Teren would eventually be let in on the secret, and was very much aware that there was a secret but he didn’t yet know what it was or when he would be apprised.  He’d just been asked to trust the Queen’s Own and he evidently did, enough to accept his newest students’ evasions without pursuing his obvious curiosity.  Meanwhile, Duo found himself trying to keep a lid on the more destructive technologies he was familiar with while surrounded by mind readers. 

“As for Weapons and Strategy & Tactics, I’ll leave that to Herald-Captain Kerowyn’s excellent judgment, and Equitation I’ll leave up to Herald Sherrill.”

Dean Teren took them to meet with the Weaponsmaster down in the training salle.   On the way into the dojo-like building, they passed a group of young people in Grays and Blues being put through their paces by a lady in Whites.  They parried at each other in a dirt-trampled yard while other students watched from rustic benches.

Waiting inside the dojo (Duo knew it was called a salle, but damn it, it looked like a dojo) stood two people in iron gray leathers. One was a tall, stern-looking dude with a scarred face, and the other a blonde with ferocious eyes and a loose-limbed but ready stance that put Duo in mind of Trowa’s completely intimidating older sister, the knife thrower.  ♫ _Ow, she’s a brick house.  She’s mighty mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out._ ♫  

Shit, he hoped Edward hadn’t picked up any of that.

Scarred Dude turned to Ferocious Blonde and said, “The worst song about you that I have ever heard,” here he paused dramatically, “it is not.”

Duo turned a piercing look on Edward, whose face scrunched up defensively.

“Don’t blame me; you were the one thinking it!”

Duo supposed there were more inappropriate songs that could have rolled through his subconscious right at that moment.  “Bad Mama Jama” tried to queue up on his mental playlist and he ruthlessly quashed it.

“All right fopdoodle.”  Ferocious Blonde, who was almost assuredly the Weaponsmaster Kerowyn (because that’s how Duo’s luck had been running lately) broadened her ready stance and smacked her hands together.  “Let’s see if you can keep that hair from becoming cordage for my saddlebags.”

Fop?  Doodle?  “I’d have lost this hair a long time ago if I couldn’t keep track of it at all times.”  Besides, he knew better than to rush in when a ripped person basically said ‘come at me bro.’  Learned that lesson with Heero.

He sketched a quick look around the room.  One wall was covered in mirrors, making it a shrapnel hazard if he were to break it, either accidentally or on purpose.  The rest were lined with what looked like bucklers and kendo sticks, all hanging from racks that might be useful for climbing.  There was a brick oven over in the far corner, unlit.  The opening was way too small for Duo to fit into even if he could get the door open, but he might be able to scale that brick with a good running start.  Above their heads a rustic chandelier dangled from sturdy chains, also unlit, and that made it a fine place to aim for.

Quick as a snake, Duo flipped his braid across his chest and over his shoulder like a bandolier and darted at the nearest wall rack.  He heard Kerowyn coming at him equally fast holy shit she’d be on him in a millisecond.  Duo didn’t waste a moment snatching a buckler off the wall and throwing it at her, and heard the blammity sound as she knocked it out of her way by hitting it toward the ground like the world’s most awkwardly shaped basketball.  Confirmed: she definitely didn’t want to chance anything hitting that mirrored wall.  He kept tossing bucklers at her until he had a clear shot at the oven and then he put on a fresh burst of speed.

“Hold still!”

“Not a chance!”  Duo hit the oven at his considerable full speed, climbing the cast iron door and launching off the chimney like a flying squirrel.

“Hey!”

Duo grabbed the chandelier with both hands and holy cats, Kerowyn was reversing motion fast as a tiger, but Duo’s luck was making a comeback because his momentum sent that chandelier swinging right where he wanted it to go: towards the open door back to the yard.  “Woohoo!”  Duo tucked his body up and threw himself over a surprised Edward’s head, hit the ground and kept running.

“Get your ass back here!”

“Nope!”

 

#

 

Duo’s acrobatic escape sent the assembled trainers and trainees into pandemonium.  Eventually they caught him, and then Captain Kerowyn threatened his braid again so he slipped out of his captors’ arms like a ferret and they had to catch him a second time.  When the Captain rescinded the threat to his hair, Duo allowed himself to be hauled back to the salle, where the one called Alberich, who looked unsettlingly like Scar, invited him to have a talk in his sitting room.  They disappeared through a door Ed hadn’t noticed at first because it had a drapery camouflaging it.  Meanwhile the one called Jeri couldn’t seem to stop laughing, even while herding her class back outside to the yard.

“I hope you don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, shorty.”

Ed’s attention was redirected at the speed of wrath.  If the Captain thought she was getting a circus performance out of him, she was in for a big surprise.  “I don’t run and hide lady.”

Captain Kerowyn waved her hands in a ‘come on’ gesture.  “Prove it.”

Duo’s little trapeze act had given Ed time and opportunity to observe Captain Kerowyn’s fighting style.  He’d noticed she was fast as lightning, tough enough to take a hit without flinching, balanced enough to make it hard to knock her off her feet, and really concerned about the mirrors on that one wall.  That made it a pretty good spot to retreat for a breather should he need it.  He hoped he wouldn’t need it and darted right at her. 

He feinted a kick and then pushed the resulting aerial energy to power a cobra punch which would have connected with her jaw if she weren’t so freaking fast.  As it was, he clipped her shoulder and she got a good jab on his guard arm.  He darted back out of arm’s reach to reconnoiter and she stayed right on him.  She was aggressive as hell.  She swung for him as he kicked out at her; they both missed, and Ed was spinning out of arm’s length again, or trying to.  She seemed to be compensating for his more agile fighting style by staying tight on the offensive.

Smart.  Ed still wasn’t at 100 percent yet and they both knew it.  She could wear him down until he eventually started fucking up his defensive maneuvers.  Sheltering in front of the mirror would only put off the inevitable if he didn’t find a way to end this fast.  Time for that classic finishing move, a Fullmetal special that usually brought a fight to a draw.  Ed took a flying leap at the Captain, knowing she wouldn’t even think of trying to get out of his way.  When he was close enough to see the whites of her eyes, he clapped!

And wound up ass over teakettle.  What the everlasting fuck?  Ed did a kip-up to his feet, ignoring his mightily protesting arm and leg, expecting to need to defend himself immediately.  Captain Kerowyn just stood watchfully with arms crossed and a cocked head.

“That clapping distraction was a good idea, but you should have saved it for another second closer,” she said.  “The less time your opponent has to react, the more effective it will be.”

“Distraction.”  Ed’s face burned.  “Haha!  Yeah, that’s totally what that was, you got me.”

In the heat of the moment he’d forgotten he couldn’t use clap alchemy here, and what would he have even transmuted if he could, his shirt sleeve?  He didn’t think she’d yield to a scabbard, no matter how badass he could have made it look.

“Come on.”  Captain Kerowyn pulled aside the drapery hiding the door to the other room.  “Let’s go see if Alberich has any tea left for us.”

 

#

 

“You have made tea before?”

As soon as Herald Alberich had taken the pot and caddy out of his cupboard, Duo had known what he was about and begun helping.  Something about the blue and gold light coming in through the stained glass window made him feel… well, not quite at home, but in the neighborhood of homely.

“Yeah, my buddy Quatre is a big fan.”  Duo placed the pot on the hearth to warm and turned back to the cabinet.

“Your lover, this Quatre is?”

Duo almost dropped the sugar bowl.  He was no shrinking violet, but jeez Louise, these people were frank about bedroom stuff. “Heh, he’s a lover alright, but not mine.”

“Do you wish it to be otherwise?”

How had this interview about his fighting background turned into an inquiry into his love life?  “No, nope.  Not Quatre.  He’s my brother, man.”

“I see.”  Alberich arranged four cups with saucers onto a tray.  “For my forwardness, I apologize.  It is simply that you ran with such determination, as if a lover waited at the other end of your path.”  He opened up his pie safe and took out a plate of cookies.  “If there were such a person, an inquiry I could make to see if that person could be made welcome here.  We are not in the custom of separating the lifebonded.”

Lifebonded?  “I appreciate the thought, but it wouldn’t do me any good.  There was a lover, but I wasn’t running toward him.”  Heero had gone and married the mission.  Duo couldn’t say he hadn’t been warned that would happen, by frenemies and trusted friends alike, but damn did it still sting.

“My apologies.”  Alberich had one of the best poker faces Duo had ever seen, so he had no idea whether he was sincere or not.  “Uncomfortable memories, I did not mean to bestir.”

They finished the tea preparations in a silence that was more of a strategic retreat than a solace.  Alberich had just retrieved the steaming kettle to pour when Kerowyn barged in with a rather subdued-looking Edward at her heels.

“Heyla,” she said.  “Looks like we joined you just in time.”

Duo had a feeling they had showed up at precisely the time Alberich and Kerowyn had previously agreed upon.

“Sit,” Alberich replied.  “Be comfortable.  We will now discuss the placement of our newest Trainees.”

“Excellent.”  Kerowyn sat and helped herself to the cookie plate.  “Ed here shows extensive training at hand-to-hand.  Looked almost like Kal’enedral fighting, but if Ed’s a Sword Sworn then I’m a lady-in-waiting.  Who taught you how to fight like that?”

Edward shrugged as he took the seat Alberich offered him.  “Teacher taught us that in order to train the mind, you must first train the body.”

“What’s your teacher’s name?  Any school I might have heard of?”

“Izumi Curtis.”  Edward took a cookie.  “She doesn’t work for a school.  She barely agreed to take me and my brother on as apprentices.”

“That actually does sound familiar,” Kerowyn muttered, picking up the sugar tongs.  “So what does she do when she’s not teaching the old rough and tumble?  Battle Priestess?  Blood feud?”

“She’s a housewife.”

“Are you serious?!”  Kerowyn dropped the lump-filled tongs in her cup.

“Let us remain on the topic,” Alberich interjected.  “Kerowyn, what say you on the weapons training for Edward?”

“I say I’m working with Ed.”  Kerowyn put the tongs back and poured herself a cup of tea.  “He’s way too skilled to spar with the kiddies, even with the gimp limbs.”

Edward frowned around his bite of cookie.

“Very good.”  Alberich sipped tea.  “Now to Duo.”

“Ah yes, the escape artist.”  Kerowyn turned sharp blue eyes on Duo.  “Where did you learn how to be so slippery?  Did you apprentice to a housewife too?”

“No.”  Duo sipped fragrant tea, stalling.

_:You can trust them,_ _Chosen_ _.  They will be among the select group advised of your origins.  In truth, they already know a little.:_

“I had a handler,” Duo said, and noticed Alberich perk up out of the corner of his eye.  “Granted, I was already good at sneaking into places I shouldn’t be from being a street kid”

“Hmm.”  Alberich sounded the exact opposite of surprised.

“But my handler taught me the skills I needed to infiltrate enemy territory, gather the intel I was sent for, set some charges and get out again before the explosions went off.”

“You were with a sabotage unit?”  Kerowyn sounded intrigued.  She turned to Alberich.  “I’ve been telling Selenay we need another unit outside of the one attached to the Skybolts.”

“So you have,” Alberich agreed, considering.  “I confess, I had hoped to train Duo here for a slightly different occupation.”

An image formed in Duo’s mind of actors in masks fencing on a stage.  One of the actors took off his mask and winked one saucy brown eye, his costume melting into Heraldic whites.  A little bit of the cloak and dagger, eh?  Duo had a pretty good idea of whose mind had inadvertently sent that image, and this time it wasn’t Edward.

“Quatre’s lover Trowa was the spy of our unit,” he said, and felt vindicated to hear Alberich’s cup clatter against his saucer.  “I was the stealth operative.  Getting in and out _without_ being seen was my gig.  It was Trowa who had the talent for undercover ops.”  Duo took a cookie off the plate.  “I never quite got the knack.”  Wufei used to rant loudly and often about how he couldn’t believe Duo could be silent long enough to complete missions, but the truth was Duo found it a lot harder to pretend to be a different person than to just be quiet for a few hours.

“I shall like to work with Duo nevertheless.”  Alberich lowered cup and saucer to the parlor table.  “It may be that we require a different sort of agent than we have previously been training.”

“Some talents arrive just before the greatest need,” Kerowyn said, trading a long and significant look with Alberich.

“Indeed,” said Alberich.

 

#

 

_:So, that wasn’t ominous at all.:_

Duo glanced to the side at Edward, who glanced back.  He was getting better at aiming mind-speak in his direction without mentally shouting.  The two of them were riding palfreys up and down the paddock so that Herald Sherrill could judge their riding positions _“without your Companions bollixing up my impressions by unconsciously trying to help you.”_   Sunshine warmed Duo’s face as the not-unpleasant scent of horse perspiration wafted up from the back of the mare whose plodding gait made him kind of want to take a nap.

_:Whatever do you mean?:_  Although he was sure he already knew what Edward meant.

Edward paused the way he did whenever Duo mind-spoke at him.  Running that through the Edward-o-meter, probably.  _:You know what I mean:_   he finally sent back.

_:Probably:_ he admitted, _:but let’s pretend I don’t.:_

Another pause, as Edward’s face took on a piqued look.  _:The greatest talent at the greatest need?:_

Yeah, that’s what he thought Edward meant.  _:I’m having trouble with the idea that they couldn’t just train someone local on how to be sneaky.:_   It wasn’t like the concept was modern in itself.  Kerowyn had recognized his basic skillset instantly.

_:There has to be more to it than that:_   Edward sent back.

They were in complete agreement on that point.

 

#

 

Herald Sherrill had judged both new Trainees had ‘a nice natural seat’ and decided to start them on beginner’s classes just until she was confident they'd caught up on equipage, then she’d accelerate them.  Once she’d walked them through taking care of the horses they’d ridden, Rojek returned to lead them back to Seshel’s domain.

“I’ve heard summat that you’ve both got book learning.”  Seshel brought out a ledger and a dip pen.  “Let’s see your letters.”

The local system of writing was the same as Amestris’s.  Or at least, it seemed like it was.  Ed wasn’t sure if he had Gether to thank for that or not.  After he took his turn demonstrating his mastery of the alphabet, Duo did the same, with a blockier style of handwriting than Ed’s, but the very same alphabet nonetheless.

“You’ve got a right pretty hand, you do,” Seshel said to Ed, “and you clearly know how to read,” she said to Duo.  “I’ll have the both of you assisting Herald-Chronicler Myste in the library this week, starting tomorrow between your classes and supper.”

Rojek was agoggle as they accepted their gently-used uniforms and then followed him to the baths.  “Usually you don’t get tapped for library duty until third year,” he said as soon as the three of them were out of Seshel’s earshot.  “I reckon you must be bloody smart.”

Ed exchanged pensive looks with Duo behind Rojek’s back.  Ed didn’t know about Duo, but in his experience a soldier only got tapped for special duty when the C.O. wanted to trade information and keep it on underground channels.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Responding to DeathGoddess: I had considered including the automail with the thought that Duo, having enough familiarity with robotics to repair Deathscythe, might be able to help Ed maintain it, but given the post-canon time period that I wanted to start with, I decided to let him have both limbs back. Ed's going to have challenges regardless, and Duo wouldn't have had Winry's medical background so that could have caused a whole new set of problems.

**Author's Note:**

> Standard disclaimers apply: I am not the creator of any of the three 'verses appearing in this fic, and I am not making any money off of it nor claiming ownership of the characters and settings.


End file.
